The last time Donald Trump was president, rumors of immigration raids terrorized the community in Oregon, where Gustavo Balderas was the school superintendent.
News spread that immigration agents would try to enter schools. There was no truth to it, but school staff had to find students who were avoiding school and lure them back to class.
“People just started ducking and hiding,” Balderas said.
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Educators across the country are preparing for unrest regardless of whether the newly elected president makes good on his promise to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally. Even if he just talks about it, children of immigrants will suffer, educators and legal observers say.
When “you continually threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really hinders people’s ability to function in society and for their children to get an education,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
That fear has already started for many.
“The kids are still coming to school, but they’re scared,” said Almudena Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, a Boston suburb that has long been a first stop for Central American immigrants coming to Massachusetts. Now Haitians are making the city a home and sending their children to school there.
“They ask, ‘Are we going to be deported?’” Abeyta said.
Many parents in her district grew up in states where the federal government ran schools and may think it’s the same here. The day after the election, Abeyta sent a letter home assuring parents that their children are welcome and safe, regardless of who is president.
Immigration officials have avoided arresting parents or students at schools. Since 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had a policy that immigration agents may not make arrests or conduct other enforcement actions near “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and houses of worship. This could limit access to essential services, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a 2021 policy update.
The Heritage Foundation’s policy roadmap for Trump’s second term, Project 2025, calls for a repeal of the “sensitive places” guidelines. Trump tried to distance himself from the proposals during the campaign, but he has nominated many who worked on the plan for his new administration, including Tom Homan for “border czar.”
If immigration agents were to arrest a parent dropping children off at school, it could cause mass panic, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles.
“If something happens in one school, it spreads like wildfire and children stop coming to school,” she said.
Balderas, now a superintendent in Beaverton, another Portland suburb, told the school committee there this month that it was time to prepare for a more determined Trump administration. If schools are targeted, Beaverton will train staff not to let immigration agents enter.
“All bets are off on Trump,” said Balderas, who is also president of ASSA, The School Superintendents Association. “If something happens, I have a feeling it will happen much faster than last time.”
Many school officials are reluctant to talk about their plans or concerns, some for fear of drawing attention to their immigrant students. A school principal who serves many children of Mexican and Central American immigrants in the Midwest said their school has invited immigration attorneys to help parents formalize plans for their children’s care in case they are deported. The administrator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Advocating on behalf of immigrant families can also put school principals at odds with school board members.
“This is a very delicate issue,” said Viridiana Carrizales, CEO of ImmSchools, a nonprofit organization that trains schools to support immigrant students.
Since the election, she has received 30 requests for help, including two from Texas superintendents who don’t think their conservative school boards would publicly approve of immigrant students having the right to attend school, or of district plans to defund immigration agents. to point out.
More than two dozen superintendents and district communications representatives contacted by The Associated Press ignored or declined requests for comment.
“This is so speculative that we would prefer not to comment on this topic,” wrote Scott Pribble, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools.
The city of Denver has helped more than 40,000 migrants find shelter or a bus ticket elsewhere in the past two years. It is also next to Aurora, one of two cities where Trump has said he would begin his mass deportations.
When pressed further, Pribble responded, “Denver Public Schools is monitoring the situation as we continue to serve, support and protect all of our students as we always have.”
Like several major urban districts, Denver’s school board passed a resolution during the first Trump administration pledging to protect its students from immigration authorities pursuing them or their information. According to the 2017 resolution, Denver “will not grant access to our students” unless federal agents can produce a valid search warrant.
The rationale is that students cannot learn if they fear that immigration agents will take them or their parents away while they are on campus. School districts also say the policy affirms their students’ constitutional right to a free public education regardless of immigration status.
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