Many of the nation’s school districts are returning to the classroom with immigrant families fearful of the Trump administration’s targeting of undocumented migrants, according to educators, experts and parents who spoke to ABC News.
Los Angeles and Chicago’s school districts — the nation’s second- and third-largest public school systems, respectively — have returned with new guidance and protections for immigrant families wary of the federal government’s measures to curb illegal immigration.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said it will prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents or federal law enforcement from accessing its facilities unless the agents produce a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge.
More than half a million Los Angeles Unified students are back in school with the district’s police force partnering with local law enforcement in an effort to protect its immigrant students. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho stressed the district will provide students with a safe space “regardless of immigration status.”
This comes as immigrants nationwide are afraid of deportation from school campuses as the administration continues to tout its signature campaign promise.
During the first several months of the president’s second term, Esmeralda Alday, former executive director of dual language and English as a second language migrant education for the San Antonio Independent School District, said fear permeated through the immigrant families in her district unlike anything she had seen before.
Some mixed-status families — where one or both parents are undocumented but the kids are U.S. citizens — unenrolled from the district after Trump took office, according to Alday. She said it was not only due to the perceived threats from ICE but some families also received detention orders in the mail.
“It’s coming at our families from every angle,” Alday told ABC News. “It’s affecting our families from all angles, almost leaving them with no choice but to self deport.”
ImmSchools co-founder Viridiana Carrizales told ABC News that these families now dread dropping their kids off at school — some won’t even leave their homes — because they risk being detained. She claimed that the administration is not only targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records but immigrants at large.
“They don’t want our kids,” Carrizales said. “They don’t want immigrant kids in schools, they don’t want them to get educated and that’s what’s happening. We have parents who are not taking their kids to school, we have parents who are withdrawing their kids from programs that are critical for their children,” she added.
Carrizales, whose organization partners with school districts to create more welcoming and safe schools for K-12 immigrant students, said, “Not having these kids receive the support that they need is going to end up hurting us all.”
But as families and school officials brace for potential crackdowns this school year, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News that no arrests have been made on K-12 school grounds during Trump’s second term and ICE has yet to raid any K-12 campuses. According to McLaughlin, the majority of DHS’ arrests so far either have prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges against them.
McLaughlin also warned that no K-12 students who are U.S. citizens should fear deportation or ICE raids, even if their parents are undocumented.
“If you are here in the United States legally, there’s no immigration enforcement, because you’re here in the country legally,” she said.
In Trump’s first full day back in office, DHS lifted its longstanding restrictions that kept ICE from conducting raids on schools and other sensitive areas, including churches and hospitals. McLaughlin said the decision was made to ensure immigration agents weren’t hamstrung from doing their jobs.
“This actually should be a good thing for all communities,” she said. “Why would you want a criminal to take safe harbor in a hospital or house of worship or a school? I mean, why would you want someone to go ‘Oh, they won’t get me here, so I’m going to go and take safe harbor there.'”
During the last school year and more recently during summer learning, Carrizales and Alday said student absenteeism spiked in Texas school districts because of fear of federal law enforcement. As the fears continue, many schools are concerned that projected enrollment for this school year could drop, according to Carrizales.
Attendance has also plagued LAUSD, board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said. Families are now navigating the virtual learning options the district offers.
Franklin said undocumented families have heightened anxiety about visiting schools during back-to-school night and other parent-teacher obligations.
“They’re struggling with the question of do I come to this one event that could be helpful for my child or do I ensure that I am here for them when they get home at the end of the day and it’s a no brainer for those who are genuinely fearful,” Franklin told ABC News.
“It’s permeating brown communities, in particular, [and] our Black immigrant communities, our Asian immigrant communities, of which there are many in Los Angeles,” she added.
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