Dear Pritzker, Let Students Go Remote Amid ICE Raids

Imagine trying to pay attention to the new content a teacher is presenting while having to grapple with the fear of being abducted en route home from school. For many children in America right now, this is their reality. 

Instead of focusing on learning foundational concepts and spending time with their peers, they’re worried about whether they will make it home, or if ICE agents will detain them or their guardians because they look to be of Latino descent.

ICE has begun targeting anyone they deem as a “danger” in their investigations. They’re taking high school children and detaining them. The public reasoning is to get the child’s guardians to come and retrieve them. They do this to make contact with the parents, and if they can’t provide paperwork to prove they are American citizens, they’re taken into custody.

Since these events are affecting many Chicago Public School students and their attendance, the Chicago Board of Education has introduced the implementation of remote learning for students at risk. However, the Chicago Board of Education doesn’t have the authority to initiate remote learning; only Governor, JB Pritzker can do so by declaring a state of emergency. 

Pritzker is resistant to enact this state due to the negative impact on children’s education seen in public schools during the COVID-19 Pandemic. With this in mind, he said wants to keep schools open as long as possible, so children’s education isn’t impacted again. 

Despite his concerns, remote learning has also proven to have benefits for children because they have the freedom to lead their own learning.

Pritzker believes students would be safer at schools instead of “wandering the community.” Do students not already take public transport or walk to school, and is that not exactly the time ICE choose to find and detain them? 

Despite this, Pritzker still hasn’t called for a state of emergency.

Families are afraid to leave their homes to buy groceries for the week or go to work. These are basic tasks which provide for their way of life, and they’re unable to go about them out of fear of being sent back to a country they don’t know as home.

What more needs to be taken from these communities for the government to step in and do more?

Community members are the only ones who seem to be looking out for their neighbors targeted by ICE. Many communities have rallied to collect donations, transport children to school and are even fighting back directly against ICE. 

So where’s the government? They’re more than willing to tell ICE they aren’t welcome in Chicago, but hesitate to take direct action toward supporting families.

Given Chicago has the resources, including set policies that inform schools how to conduct learning from home along with a learning plan, and the access to technology for students to learn remotely, ensuring their safety from the illegal detentions, it’s infuriating there’s no movement towards this initiative. 

Education is the most important part of a child’s development, and there’s an easy solution to protecting students’ education amid the dangers they’re facing in their community.A child can’t get an adequate education if they’re in a detention center, separated from their support system. While Pritzker may not believe we’re in a state of emergency, it’s clear we’re under attack by the federal government who claims to “protect and serve.”