00:00The Trump administration claimed that the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history
00:04would increase community safety and protect U.S. children.
00:07However, there have been a growing number of reports of immigration agents showing up outside schools.
00:12Our correspondent Mitch Gaines has more details.
00:16The Trump administration promised the biggest deportation effort in U.S. history
00:20would make U.S. kids safer and the country better.
00:23But in the years' time since those operations have begun,
00:25we've seen a disturbing number of instances of agents showing up at schools
00:28during pick-up and drop-off times,
00:31often violently snatching up parents directly in front of their children.
00:36From the suburbs of New Jersey to Ohio to big cities like Chicago,
00:40and of course the story of Liam Ramos, the five-year-old Ecuadorian boy,
00:43snatched up by ICE as he was leaving school with his father in Minneapolis this January.
00:47ICE has made their presence known,
00:49but educators report that fear, not safety, has been the real outcome for their students.
00:54Policies that once protected schools as sensitive locations
00:57were revoked by Donald Trump on day one of his administration,
01:01January 20th, 2025.
01:02In some states, like Texas, they've gone even further.
01:05One of the school board members was calling for us to get a registry
01:11of all of the students who are undocumented or their parents are undocumented
01:17to try to stop providing them with an education.
01:19We can't know who's illegal or illegal,
01:23then we also can't be given money to offset that cost.
01:27We spoke with Maddie, a math teacher in Eightleaf, Texas,
01:30about how her students are feeling.
01:31As a lot of, like, first-generation immigrants,
01:34even if it's not from areas that are necessarily being super targeted by ICE right now,
01:41it's really, really easy for these students to put themselves in the shoes of the other students.
01:47And so they can really see, like, oh, like, this is what would happen if I were a slightly different
01:53color.
01:54Some schools have tried to fortify their campuses in response.
01:57In Connecticut, for instance, last year, the superintendent in New Haven
02:00began requiring school principals to handle any interaction with an immigration authority.
02:04Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill that would restrict state and local collaboration with ICE.
02:09And many municipalities are passing local measures to ban ICE from operating on or near school grounds.
02:16But for educators themselves, they say that the guidance they receive from their administrations
02:20varies widely based on the district that they're in.
02:23Here's Haley, a teacher in Katy, Texas.
02:25We have had no directive given whatsoever.
02:27We've never had a conversation of what we should do as teachers.
02:30We haven't had any support on what to do if your students are nervous or uncomfortable
02:36or been given any direction, like, they should go to the counselor or the social worker or anything like that.
02:42While things are complicated for the adults in the building,
02:45the response from the students seems to be mostly shows of support for one another.
02:48Make it loud! Make it clear! Immigrants are welcome here!
02:52Student camaraderie has led to protests and walkouts in every school district we've spoken to an educator from.
02:57The nonprofit KFF estimates that one in four, or roughly 19 million children in the U.S.,
03:03have an immigrant parent in their household.
03:05About 10% of educators nationwide are also immigrants themselves,
03:08and over 20% of the U.S. child care workforce is comprised of immigrants.
03:13I'm actually going to talk from an extremely personal experience because I am the daughter of an immigrant,
03:17so this did affect me.
03:19So it was very much a, you have to keep your private life private,
03:24which was very difficult, too, as an educator when students are like,
03:27I'm freaking out about this.
03:27One of the more tangible effects that educators are reporting back
03:30is the rise in absences that are related to ICE.
03:33The Charlotte-Meckenberg School District in North Carolina said that more than 27,000 students
03:38were absent on the first day of school after U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived in the city back in
03:42November.
03:43That number was three times higher than their average.
03:46Now, a recent report in Texas found that 81% of the enrollment drop across the state
03:50was from Latino students specifically.
03:52Now, because American education funding is tied directly to enrollment on a peer-pupil basis,
03:57these declines in enrollment mean staff cuts and budget shortfalls
04:00for the upcoming school year in August.
04:02The enrollment crisis, a lot of it is impacted by federal immigration policy.
04:06What impacts decreased enrollment is our budget, too,
04:09because so much of it has relied on the state.
04:10And when we found out that we had such a sharp decrease in enrollment in Lombopo schools,
04:14we knew that we would have to be, as a union, very proactive.
04:17Just this week, we reported on Mariola, a Massachusetts educator who was facing detention
04:21and deportation after more than 15 years here in the states.
04:24But after her union and the community rallied behind her,
04:27at her check-in in the next day at the ICE's field office,
04:30Mariola received a temporary stay with another hearing scheduled for November to determine her fate.
04:35Only time will tell how things shake out.
04:37But as things stand, educators across the country are bracing for the coming impacts
04:41and doing what they can to give every child in their care
04:43what every kid deserves to start a life with, a decent education.
04:47For Telesor English, I'm Mitch Gaines.
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