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Arizona schools brace for the worst as Trump’s immigration raids begin

By Mia Osmonbekov

January 24, 2025

Arizona schools are bracing for impact following President Donald Trump’s executive order that allows federal agents to raid schools and arrest undocumented immigrants on campus.

Raids have already been reported in New Jersey and Illinois. Chicago Public Schools officials said they turned away immigration officers who tried to enter the school without a warrant—although federal agencies have disputed who the officers worked for—while agents in Newark made warrantless arrests of  US citizens and a military veteran.

Raids allowed at schools, churches, and hospitals

Trump’s directive reverses a 2011 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo instructing field officers to avoid arresting, interviewing, searching, or surveilling sensitive areas like schools, churches, and hospitals. Lawmakers, school officials, and advocacy groups worry about the mental health and attendance toll that the fear of arrests could take on students with immigrant backgrounds.

For teachers like Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson, the looming threat of raids casts a shadow over schools and will create an anxious atmosphere where students have a right to feel safe and at ease.

“As a teacher, my number one job is to protect my students, and we don’t want confrontations with teachers and ICE in front of our students, but we also are not going to allow students to be taken from school property by ICE,” Gutierrez said.

Tempe Union High School District is working on guidelines to prepare teachers and administrators for ICE raids, and is consulting legal counsel to know its options, according to Megan Sterling, who oversees the district’s strategic planning.

“We have heard that there are ICE agents in our area or in areas that our families live,” said Sterling. “That’s obviously very sobering and concerning to us.”

A spokesperson for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in an email that rules on cooperating with the federal immigration agency is at each school’s discretion, noting that the superintendent’s office “can’t get into hypotheticals.”

Schools reassure families, prepare protocols

Sterling said that ICE agents can’t simply “barge in and start searching students,” but must present a warrant and have it inspected by the school. Administrators will start working through navigating potential ICE scenarios next week, she said.

“This is all like evolving very quickly, so we’re trying to do our best to stay on top of it and give people the information they need,” Sterling said.

Tempe Union issued a statement aimed at reassuring families in light of Trump’s executive order on Wednesday. Phoenix Union High School District and Mesa Public Schools sent similar letters.

“As a school district, we want all families to know that they are welcome at our schools. All students, regardless of immigration status, have a right to an education in this country and we stand by that principle,” the Tempe Union statement said in part.

Challenging education as a right

A landmark 1982 Supreme Court case established that states cannot deny free public education to students based on their immigration status. But the anxiety surrounding a potential raid on school grounds could traumatize students, according to José Patiño, the vice president of education and external affairs at immigrant advocacy organization Aliento.

“You’re literally talking about five, six, seven-year-old kids whose focus should be on learning the alphabet, learning how to read, learning how to add,” Patiño said. “Learning is gonna suffer, attendance is going to suffer, mental health, of not only the students and the parents, but also the teachers and counselors, the school leaders, because now they also have to become immigration attorneys.”

Patiño said that he believes the purpose of Trump clearing the way for ICE agents to knock on school doors is to scare immigrant families and tell them that they don’t belong in the country. However, Patiño said he believes that “public sentiment about Trump” will change once people in Arizona see ICE raids actually happen.

For now, schools are focusing on the children in their classrooms.

“We are dedicated to our students. So as long as, as we’re within legal boundaries, we will do what we need to do to keep them safe,” Sterling said.

Author

  • Mia Osmonbekov

    Mia Osmonbekov is a reporter for The Copper Courier covering education and immigration. She has previously worked for Arizona Capitol Times and La Voz del Interior, and is expected to graduate from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in 2025.

CATEGORIES: EDUCATION
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