NEW YORK, Feb 18:
In Fresno, California, social media speculation regarding potential immigration raids at local schools has caused alarm among parents, despite the fact that these raids were unfounded.
In Denver, however, an actual immigration raid at an apartment complex resulted in numerous students opting to stay home from school, as highlighted by a lawsuit. Meanwhile, in Alice, Texas, a school official erroneously informed parents that Border Patrol agents might board school buses to verify immigration statuses.
President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are already having a significant impact on educational institutions nationwide, as officials navigate the heightened anxiety amongst parents and their children, including those who are legally residing in the country. Trump’s executive orders greatly expanded the criteria for deportation and removed restrictions on immigration enforcement in schools.
While numerous public and school officials are striving to encourage immigrant families to send their children to school, some are taking a contrary approach.
In the meantime, Republicans in Oklahoma and Tennessee have proposed measures that could make it challenging — or even impossible — for children without documentation and US-born children of undocumented parents to attend school.
As they assess the risks, many families are grappling with distinguishing fact from fiction.
In the Alice Independent School District in Texas, officials informed parents that the district had “received information” suggesting that US Border Patrol agents could interrogate students about their citizenship during field trips on buses passing through checkpoints roughly 60 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. This information was ultimately proven to be false.
Angelib Hernandez from Aurora, Colorado, started keeping her children home from school a few days each week following Trump’s inauguration. Now, she doesn’t send them at all.
She fears that immigration agents may visit her children’s schools, detain them, and separate her family.
“They’ve told me, ‘Hopefully we won’t ever be detained by ourselves,’” she explained. “That would terrify them.”
Hernandez and her children arrived in the US about a year ago and have applied for asylum. She is following the proper legal procedures to remain in the country, but changes in immigration policies have put her status in jeopardy.
Over the past week, her concerns have escalated. She now perceives “everyone” — from Spanish-language media to social media to fellow parents and students — as suggesting that immigration agents are planning to enter schools in the Denver area. The school assures parents that children are safe. “But we don’t trust it.”
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have not been reported to enter schools, the possibility has created enough concern among families that certain districts are advocating for changes in policies that permit agents to operate in educational settings.
Recently, Denver Public Schools filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, accusing the Trump administration of disrupting the education of vulnerable youths under its care. Denver welcomed 43,000 migrants from the southern border last year, many of whom became enrolled in the city’s public schools. The district indicated that attendance at schools with high concentrations of migrant children has declined in recent weeks, noting that the immigration raid at a local apartment complex contributed to this decline.
Across the nation, conservative groups are raising doubts about whether undocumented immigrants should have access to public education.
In Oklahoma, Republican state superintendent Ryan Walters proposed a regulation that would have mandated parents to provide proof of citizenship — such as a birth certificate or passport — for enrolling their children in school.
Although the rule would have allowed registration even without proof, advocates claim it would have strongly deterred parents from enrolling their children. Even the state’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, thought the measure was excessive and vetoed it.
In Tennessee, Republican legislators have introduced a bill that would grant school districts the authority to determine whether to admit undocumented students. They aim to provoke legal challenges, which would allow them to contest a four-decade-old legal precedent that guarantees every child’s right to education in the country.
The consequences of immigration policy on US schools are profound.
Fwd.us, an organization advocating for immigration and criminal justice reform, estimated in 2021 that around 600,000 K-12 students in the US lack legal status.
Almost 4 million students — many of whom are US-born — have a parent living in the country without documentation.
Research has shown that immigration raids can adversely affect the academic performance of students — including those born in the US. In North Carolina and California, studies have indicated a decline in attendance and enrollment among Hispanic students when local law enforcement participates in programs enabling them to enforce immigration laws. Another study found that test scores for Hispanic students decreased in schools near areas where workplace raids occurred.
In Fresno, attendance has dropped post-Trump’s administration by as many as 700 to 1,000 students daily. Officials in the central California district have received numerous frantic calls from parents concerning reported immigration raids — including those said to occur at schools, according to Carlos Castillo, chief of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Fresno Unified School District. However, the feared raids at schools turned out to be fabrications.
“It extends beyond just students who … have citizenship or legal status,” Castillo remarked. Students are anxious for their parents, relatives, and friends, and they dread the possibility of immigration agents raiding their schools or homes.
A principal recently contacted Castillo in tears after a family revealed they were too scared to go grocery shopping. The principal took it upon herself to shop for the family and delivered USD 100 worth of groceries to their home — then sat with the family and cried, Castillo explained.
The district has been collaborating with families to inform them of their rights and provide guidance on matters such as asset liquidation or child custody planning in case the parents are deported. The district has partnered with local organizations that can offer legal advice and has conducted nearly a dozen meetings, some of which were held on Zoom. (AP)
