Immigration arrests in schools? How schools could react to new Trump ICE directive
School districts in Bucks County might soon be issuing guidance on dealing with immigration officers following an end to a national policy preventing federal agents from carrying out warrants on school grounds.
On President Donald Trump's first full day in office, the Department of Homeland Security officially rescinded a 2011 policy that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting enforcement at "sensitive locations," such as schools and churches, USA Today reported.
The change came after an executive order signed by Trump on Wednesday called for ramped up deportations, leading to DHS Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman to end the policy.
Officials across the country have anticipated the new directive, and school officials across the country have reported issuing guidance to staff on what to do if ICE agents arrive on campus.
School guidance to comply with ICE
Those recommendations have included confirming the identity of federal agents, asking for warrants or legal orders and consulting with school attorneys.
Superintendent Steven Yanni said that’s the general directive at Central Bucks School District, one of the largest in Pennsylvania.
“We will follow federal guidance and comply with law enforcement if they arrive at our schools. We will handle each instance individually and will also collaborate with our solicitor as needed,” Yanni said in an email Thursday afternoon.
Immigration attorney Shereen Chen Gray, of Marlton, New Jersey, said that also appears to be the direction officials in her state are giving schools.
The New Jersey Department of Education’s website includes a section for “School Protocols for Immigration Enforcement.”
“One thing they are saying (in New Jersey) is schools are not required to provide information about students' attendance or locations, or to make students available on the spot without the opportunity to consult with a chief school administrator and or legal counsel,” Gray said.
Gray added that ultimately schools will likely have to comply if ICE agents have a warrant or court order to detain a student, similar to if local law enforcement had to arrest a student for a crime.
Gray is also recommending that schools reach out to their local immigration offices now, similar to how schools tend to have an open line of communication with local police.
“I would definitely say this is the time for your local school district to reach out and make an effort to get to know your local immigration offices,” Gray said.
No law, Trump order allows ICE to round up students
For now, Gray said the end of the sensitive areas rule doesn’t pose a major change in how immigration laws will be enforced.
The key difference is that now ICE can act on warrants in schools, but Gray said that doesn’t necessarily mean they will.
“There’s no order and there’s no immigration law that would be like, ‘hey, I’m just going to run into this school and grab these kids.’ They still have to be affecting an order,” Chen-Gray said.
One reason why immigration officers might visit a school could be if their parents fail to appear at a hearing on an order for deportation, Gray said.
An "in absentia" order would be issued for ICE to arrest that person, which would include collecting their children —a process that predates Trump’s order and how it is as of Thursday.
The difference is that now ICE could try to collect those children from school instead of waiting for them to go home.
“From a logistical point of view, or reasonable-person standard point of view, is it worth the ICE officer's time to go knock on the door of that school to go pick up these minor children that might have a removal order from an in absentia order from five years ago?” Gray asked. “Probably not.”
One caveat is that this is also a very new change and comes in a flurry of other immigration related changes.
“Until we see its applicability in real life, we won’t know what it is, what’s going to happen,” said Gray.
Trump also signed an executive order to revoke birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The executive order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it flagrantly unconstitutional.
A judge Thursday blocked the implementation of the birthright order.
Gray said an end to birthright citizenship could impact how immigration law is implemented in schools, and in many other institutions across the country.