DENVER ‒ School districts representing hundreds of thousands of students nationally have reported attendance drops in the wake of highly publicized ICE raids, with some classrooms seeing as many as two-thirds of students temporarily absent.
From New York to Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver, school districts have reported students staying home in fear that they or their parents could be deported.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees a free public education to every child, regardless of immigration status, but a new Trump administration policy gives ICE agents more leeway to target schools, bus stops and other educational facilities.
“Permitting law enforcement to conduct raids on school grounds or in hospitals and clinics, potentially forcibly removing people in front of children, will break trust between families, law enforcement and your administration, as children will be traumatized by the spectacle,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers warned President Donald Trump. “This will indelibly scar native-born American families as well as immigrant families; the impact and harms will be absorbed by entire communities.”
In Texas, school police are investigating a mother’s accusation that her 11-year-old daughter died by suicide after being relentlessly harassed by her classmates over her family’s immigration status.
For decades, federal immigration agents generally avoided conducting enforcement sweeps or detentions at or near what the federal government deemed “sensitive” areas, including schools and churches, although there were exceptions in emergencies. Trump immediately rescinded that longstanding policy upon retaking office, and instead told agents to use “common sense” in making arrests where necessary.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from conducting immigration operations in and around some churches, and Denver Public Schools has asked a different federal judge to block similar enforcement around educational buildings, bus stops and other places students might naturally gather.
In Denver, ICE raids near a school earlier this month scared kids from coming to class for days, said Superintendent Alex Marrero. He said federal agents also delayed buses from leaving, and detained both parents of two students, forcing DPS to find someone to look after them. DPS has about 90,000 students.
“One common thread is uncertainty and even fear, and on that one day, horror,” Marrero told USA TODAY. “No student can learn when they’re under stress and anxiety. My community is living in fear.”
In Chicago, the teachers union is creating “sanctuary teams” to help protect students if there’s an ICE raid. Many teachers worry what will happen to their students if their parents are deported while they’re at class.
“Students should know that one of the safest places they can be is at their school,” the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement. “Here is the reality: Donald Trump told everyone who he would be when he returned to the White House. Anyone in a leadership position not doing everything in their power to prepare and respond is doing a disservice to the communities they serve.”
In Erie, Pennsylvania, some parents have also been keeping their kids home, said Monica Ruiz, executive director at Casa San José, a nonprofit resource center for Latinos in Pittsburgh.
“You’ve got the sense of fear,” Ruiz said. “How do you learn in that environment?”
In Los Angeles, attendance dropped 20% on a single day earlier this month, although officials said that was likely due to a combination of concerns about ICE raids, a scheduled protest against them, and the lingering impacts of wildfires.
And in New York City, a schools spokesperson said they “closely monitor” attendance and are working with individual schools to address concerns.
Lora Ries, who heads the border security and immigration center at the conservative Heritage Foundation, says worries about federal enforcement at schools are likely overblown, and that ICE agents are unlikely to target sensitive locations without a compelling reason. The real harms, she says, are to students whose schools don’t have the resources to accommodate undocumented children.
Some Trump-aligned local officials have been pushing to overturn the 1982 Supreme Court decision that requires free schooling for students, known as Plyler v. Doe.
School communities are tired, Ries said, of shouldering the costs and the feeling that the quality of education is compromised by immigrant students.
In Denver, Marrero, the superintendent, said he’s unsure what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish by announcing it may begin conducting ICE enforcement actions at schools. He said the disruption to the community risks setting back academic progress made since the pandemic, and laughed at the suggestion violent gang members are somehow sitting “criss-cross applesauce” in classrooms.
“In what world do they want record low attendance and a regression of all the progress we’ve made since the pandemic?” he asked. “If it’s just to instill fear, it’s been absolutely successful.”
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