Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter
Students from immigrant families are living in fear and in some cases have stopped showing up for school now that President Donald J. Trump has returned to office, yet not all educators have received directives on how to respond to their anxiety and possible raids on campus, say teachers who spoke at a joint news conference hosted Thursday by The Century Foundation and the National Newcomers Network.
But educators said they are determined to help these students learn, even through this difficult time. Diana Herrera, who teaches in California’s Central Valley but who declined to name her school, vowed to protect her students as if they were her own children. Even with her sensitivity to their plight, she said, attendance has dropped — including among those born in the United States.
“They are concerned for their family members,” Herrera said, through tears, adding her school has not given teachers any directives on how to address or quell their concerns. “If I can’t give them the right answer or if I can’t make them feel better, they are not going to continue coming.”
Trump recently removed barriers that once kept immigration agents away from schools, churches and hospitals. Conservative forces — who have urged undocumented residents to consider self deportation — have also, for years, been strategizing to undo Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status.
Amid these challenges, Cheruba Chavez, who is an English language and special education teacher in New Orleans, pledged to keep her students safe and engaged: Those who miss school will get follow-up calls encouraging them to return, and those who transfer will receive all the help they need to avoid gaps in their learning.
“They are coming to school for something that no one can take away from them: an education,” she said.
Despite the anxiety around immigration and deportation, Hector Villagra, vice president of policy advocacy and community education at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he believes campus raids are unlikely.
But he said staff members should understand their legal obligation: Villagra, an attorney, said schools typically do not have to honor what he called “administrative warrants” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Most are mere forms issued through the Department of Homeland Security or ICE and are not judicial warrants signed by a judge or magistrate, he said.
“These documents do not give ICE agents any authority to enter school premises without permission,” he said.
Dan McNeil, general counsel for the American Federation of Teachers, echoed his remarks at the teachers union’s virtual town hall Thursday night. He said ICE agents on campus should be referred to the school’s administration. As for teachers, they can remain mum. “You have the right to remain silent,” he said. “You should not disclose the immigration status of your student — or even let them know if a student that they ask about is on campus.”
ICE did not immediately respond to questions about its authority.
Alejandra Vazquez Baur, cofounder of the National Newcomers Network, said attorneys, not front office workers, should be the ones to decipher which warrants must be acted upon.
She added that Trump’s tactics, which she characterized as “an attack” on immigrant families, are designed to make them believe they do not belong in public spaces. “Families fear to send their kids to school,” she said. “This is about exclusion, racism and power. The cruelty is the point.”
But Vazquez Baur added that immigrant advocates are using this moment to organize, unite, share ideas and push back, when possible, against the president’s directives.
Even so, tensions remain high on the ground and some schools are cancelling in-person events for parents who are worried about coming to campus, said Nancy Rosas, senior director of schools for the Internationals Network. “Overall that fear makes people behave like they want to hide in the shadows,” she said.
Viri Carrizales, president of ImmSchools, founded in 2018 to support educators in creating a welcoming environment for immigrant students, said the consternation around immigration has left some educators worried about addressing the matter head on.
Carrizales, who was undocumented in her K-12 and college journey, said some school staff are prohibiting the distribution of “know-your-rights” cards to students for fear of drawing attention to their schools: She said, too, their silence on these critical issues makes immigrant families feel unsupported. Some are withdrawing their children entirely.
The 74 also reached out to multilingual learner teachers on Facebook. While some said attendance held steady, others, like Tammy Ingraham Baggett, who teaches multilingual learners in Harris County, Texas, said numbers declined noticeably in the past week.
She said two students told her they were going to miss school because of possible immigration raids: One child, whose mother was concerned for her safety at school, asked to work on her assignments at home for the rest of the week because of ICE.
“Is your mom scared?” Ingraham Baggett recalled asking the ninth grader. “She said emphatically, ‘Yes.’ I asked if she was scared. She shrugged, eyes downcast, and nodded yes.”
Ariel Taylor Smith, senior director of the National Parents Union Policy & Action Center, whose organization has taken a strong stance in favor of immigrant communities, said she is worried about students in Republican states and about those living in the suburbs or in rural areas.
“I think a lot of our kids in our urban cities are in districts that have the infrastructure to provide regular communication with parents in multiple languages,” she said. “That’s muscle they’ve already built — and it’s one everyone should have.”
Some suburban and rural districts might not have that same capacity, she said.
Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter
