Secret service agents were mistakenly identified as ICE officers when attempting to enter an elementary school, creating a potentially stressful environment for education majors stationed in schools.
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Secret service agents were mistakenly identified as ICE officers when attempting to enter an elementary school, creating a potentially stressful environment for education majors stationed in schools.
Education majors working in local schools have seen changes in their classrooms as the threat of ICE grows in schools. Fear and uncertainty about ICE raids has contributed to a tentative and fearful atmosphere within schools.
The Trump administration announced an end to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy restricting arrests at schools and churches Jan. 21, The Associated Press reported.
A federal judge restricted agents from entering a selection of houses of houses of worship, The AP reported. Fear of deportations in Chicago schools heightened when ICE released a statement Jan. 26 stating it would conduct “enhanced targeted operations” in the city.
Loyola education majors work in Chicago Public Schools during their third and fourth years as a requirement for graduation. Some say they’ve experienced the effects of these changes firsthand as they shadow teachers and work with students.
Third-year English education major Leila Celio said she works at Taft High School in Norwood Park, where she teaches and observes two honors English classes.
Taft High School has a large Latino population, and Celio, who was born in Mexico, said ICE and deportation have been significant points of discussion among her students, especially since the election.
“They are constantly asking, ‘Who did you vote for, what are your friends voting for, what did your family vote for,’” Celio said. “The political climate right now is a huge thing for them.”
Celio said conversations about politics and Latino issues happen often while students are analyzing poetry and during in-class discussions. She said she hasn’t had any talks with faculty at Taft about what to do if ICE comes to her school.
ICE officers haven’t entered any Chicago schools, though there was an incident Jan. 24 when Secret Service agents were mistakenly identified as ICE officers when attempting to enter Hamline Elementary School while investigating a threat to an official, The AP reported.
CPS didn’t allow the agents to enter the school, but the mix-up elevated fears within Chicago’s immigrant communities about the possibility of deportations and arrests being made at schools, The AP reported.
Celio is from the far Southeast Side of Chicago and said she remembers playing soccer matches in Back of the Yards — the neighborhood where Hamline Elementary School is located.
“That community is really close to where my family is, and it’s really important to know the City of Chicago really has our backs with these types of things,” Celio said.
In a Jan. 22 statement, CPS said they won’t share student records with ICE and will only allow ICE officers to enter schools if they produce a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge. ICE cannot enter schools even if they produce an administrative warrant, an ICE detainer, or another document issued by an agency enforcing civil immigration law.
Celio said she worries if ICE officers are able to enter school, it would cause students who are undocumented, or with undocumented parents, to stop attending school for fear of being arrested and deported.
In an email to the Phoenix, CPS Assistant Press Secretary Benjamin Pagani said they don’t monitor district-wide attendance after the first 20 days of school, so they don’t know if students have stopped coming to school in the wake of the Jan. 26 ICE announcement. Individual classes take attendance, but the data isn’t reported to CPS.
ICE declined requests for comment.
“There’s been a lot of students that have stopped going to school already,” Celio said. “I know some friends from high school, their little siblings have stopped going to school.”
Stephen Woo, a third-year secondary education and mathematics major who’s currently placed in both Lycée Français de Chicago and Old Orchard High School, said he’s also afraid students may stop coming to school out of fear of ICE and deportation.
Woo said if students don’t come to school, they may have trouble meeting the requirements for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
In order to gain conditional permanent residence though DACA, recipients must be admitted to an institution of higher education, have graduated high school or obtained a GED or be enrolled in a program to obtain a high school diploma or GED, according to The American Immigration Council.
Woo said he believes the Trump administration is threatening to make arrests at schools and churches in order to intimidate immigrant families.
“I don’t think they care about the students who are children of illegal immigrants, but it’s more of a statement that ‘I will get you, no matter the cost,'” Woo said.
Woo also said Latin American immigrants have been disproportionately targeted by the government, and targeting Chicago is evidence of this bias. Chicago has a 29.6% Latino population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Ultimately, I think it’s a racism issue of people targeting students with darker skin and people who are of Latino heritage,” Woo said.
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