Fearing mass deportations, schools are preparing for riots

The last time Donald Trump was president, rumors of immigration raids terrorized the Oregon community where Gustavo Balderas was the school principal.

News spread that immigration officials were trying to break into schools. There was no truth in that, but school staff had to find students who were avoiding school and persuade them to go back to class.

“People just started ducking and hiding,” Balderas said.

Educators across the country are bracing for unrest regardless of whether the president-elect follows through on his promise to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Even if he just talked about it, immigrant children would suffer, educators and legal observers said.

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When “you constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really hurts people’s ability to function in society and educate their children,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.

This fear has already begun 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 make the city their home and send 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 operates schools and may think it’s the same here. The day after the election, Abeyta sent a letter home assuring parents that their children would be welcome and safe no matter who was president.

Immigration officials have avoided arresting parents or students at schools. Since 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has operated under a policy that immigration officers cannot conduct arrests or other enforcement actions near “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals and places of worship. This could limit access to essential services, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a 2021 policy update.

The Heritage Foundation’s policy roadmap for Trump’s second term, Project 2025, calls for repealing the “sensitive places” guidance. During the campaign, Trump tried to distance himself from the proposals, but he nominated many who worked on the plan for his new administration, including Tom Homan as “border czar.”

If immigration agents arrested a parent dropping off children at school, it could trigger mass panic, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles.

“If something happens at a school, it spreads like wildfire and kids stop coming to school,” she said.

Balderas, now superintendent in Beaverton, another Portland suburb, told the school board there this month that it was time to prepare for a more assertive Trump administration. If schools are targeted, Beaverton will train staff not to allow immigration officials entry.

“With Trump, all bets are off,” said Balderas, who is also president of ASSA, The School Superintendents Association. “When something happens, I feel like it happens a lot quicker than last time.”

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Many school officials are hesitant to talk about their plans or concerns, some for fear of drawing attention from their immigrant students. A school administrator who serves many children of Mexican and Central American immigrants in the Midwest said his school has invited immigration lawyers to help parents formalize plans for caring for their children in the event of deportation. The administrator spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Advocating on behalf of immigrant families can also create conflict between principals and school board members.

“This is a very sensitive issue,” said Viridiana Carrizales, executive director of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that trains schools on how to support immigrant students.

Since the election, she has received 30 requests for help, including two from Texas school leaders who believe their conservative school boards would not approve of publicly affirming immigrant students’ right to attend school or that the district plans to turn away immigration officials.

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 the matter,” wrote Scott Pribble, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools.

The city of Denver has helped more than 40,000 migrants with housing or bus tickets elsewhere in the past two years. It is also next to Aurora, one of two cities where Trump has announced he would begin mass deportations.

When pressed further, Pribble responded, “Denver Public Schools is monitoring the situation as we continue to care, support and protect all of our students as we always have.”

Like many metropolitan districts, Denver’s school board passed a resolution during the first Trump administration that promised to protect its students from immigration authorities pursuing them or their information. According to the 2017 resolution, Denver “will not provide access to our students” unless federal officials can produce a valid search warrant.

The reason for this is that students cannot study if they fear that immigration officials will take them or their parents while they are on campus. School districts also say these policies affirm their students’ constitutional right to a free, public education, regardless of immigration status.