Immigrant raids can affect schools
01/08 -- A recent report by the Urban Institute for the National Council of La Raza says federal raids at work sites to apprehend undocumented immigrants has created hardships for their children.
According to the report, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested nearly 20,000 undocumented fugitives in 2006. More than 650,000 immigrants have been deported since 1996.
Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children examines three raids in the past year -- one at a textile plant in New Bedford, Mass., and raids at meatpacking plants in Greeley, Colo., and Grand Island, Neb.
In all three communities, detainees were given limited opportunities to communicate with their children, some parents were held overnight or for several days, and many parents were afraid to tell ICE agents they had children for fear they would be taken into custody, as well.
“Many families hid in their homes -- in some cases in basements or closets -- for days or weeks on end,” the report notes. Uncertainty about the future and parents’ loss of income caused children to experience economic and psychological stress.
The report generally praises the school districts in the three sites for ensuring that children were not dropped off at empty homes on the day of the raid or left at school overnight. The Grand Island school district, which had experience with a similar raid in 1992, had a plan to contact every child whose parents worked at the plant to make sure they had adult supervision.
“We tried to make it clear that school is a safe place,” said Grand Island school board Vice President Roger Harms.
Since that raid, in December 2006, there have been several smaller raids and a lot of mistrust and confusion, said Grand Island Superintendent Steve Joel.
“We expected a mass exodus but it didn’t happen,” he said. Of the 185 students who were affected, more than 100 are still in school -- many staying with relatives -- and about 100 new English language learners enrolled. He told of one 12th-grader who was pregnant and whose parents were deported, who was able -- with lots of help from the community -- to stay and graduate before joining her family in Mexico.
The Irving, Texas, school district has seen a decline in enrollment since September when the city of Irving started taking more aggressive steps to deport undocumented aliens, says Tony Thetford, director of public information.
Although the district doesn’t know why they left and doesn’t document students’ immigration status, he suspects the anti-immigration climate could be making some families nervous.
He stresses the conflict the “is not affecting the learning environment” and is spreading the message throughout the community that “school is the safest place to be.”
Schools must educate all children who show up and are not allowed to ask about children’s immigration status, according to the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe.
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