As immigration officials moved to Chicago following Donald Trump’s inauguration and implemented plans for the president’s “massive deportation,” city schools began to notice a wave of absence.
The parents were greeting their children early or parked a few blocks away. A horrific immigrant raid targets the pickup rush. In a city that has been accepting thousands of new immigrant students in recent years, teachers have called homes to check in families who are afraid to leave. In the after-school program for high school students, educators were handing out information that students “know your rights” to give to undocumented parents.
And across the city, teachers and parents wondered how long the government’s surge would last before the pressure rose.
As the Trump administration advances immigration agenda, withdraws years of protections against immigration attacks on school campuses, deploys hundreds of federal agents in residential and quiet suburban enclaves, U.S. educators is in a hurry to maintain a safe space for students to learn.
In some cities and states with hard-line immigration policies, educators and civil rights groups are fighting to make public education accessible to students, regardless of their immigration situation. In Oklahoma, teachers and elected leaders are fighting the passage of proposed rules that require schools to seek evidence of US citizenship during their enrolment.
“Children – they can only learn algebra if they have a supportive environment,” says the National Newcomer Network, a national coalition of educators and researchers working to support immigrant children and families. said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, co-founder and director of the company. . “And all teachers are already supporters.”
Amidst the migrant attacks, teachers now need to tackle difficult questions from students and fear of deportation. “The kids don’t see the situation with immigration. The kids look at their friends,” she added. “What happens if a student sees a classmate being picked out of the classroom? So how do you explain these things?”
In Chicago, educators had begun preparing several months ago for Trump’s deportation agenda to affect public school students. Teachers and school administrators coordinated safety plans and hone their legal rights.
Still, school staff have found themselves rushing to help parents and children who are afraid to leave their homes suddenly, and a licensed clinical social worker at a school in Chicago’s Brighton Park area Ashley Perez said.
As ice agents circulate online as they sprint through undocumented immigrant doors, the news says Perez, director of clinical services at the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, says that children will be taken away from their parents. He said he began to express his concern more and more. She recently visited with families who had not come to school for more than a week on their inauguration day, reviewing all the ways teachers can protect them and providing them to walk all the children. We cooperated to dispatch and from campus.
“And we sat in their dining room to handle all sorts of kinds of things, parents and children, some of their feelings,” Perez said. “Because there’s so much fear right now…and school should be a place of stability, not fear.”
In Chicago’s Pilsen, a largely Mexican-American neighbour, Chalkbeat Chicago is a high school principal who does the best he can to keep his children safe, but the school is still in the family home. He reported that he told his parents he understood the decision to be there.
“Please know that our school is safe and that students will be protected while they are in school, and we also understand that there is a lot of fear and anxiety among our families,” obtained by Chalkbeat .
Roy, a sophomore teacher on the southwest side of Chicago, said he has already asked questions from his 6- and 7-year-olds.
Many of his students were new arrivals from Venezuela and were caught up in his classroom after a long, often traumatic migration. “One of my students who came here from Venezuela last year, told me the story of people who didn’t make it in the jungle while they were crossing the river,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared for that type of conversation.”
Now that the Trump administration has begun targeting Chicago for massive raids and moves to rescind the temporary legal status that protected thousands of Venezuelans from deportation, Roy’s students are uncertain and faces fresh waves of trauma. The Guardian has not published his full name and the school he teaches, as students and their families could be targets for immigration enforcement.
Many of his students are too young to fully understand what is going on and why the adults of their lives are on the edge. Shortly after Trump was elected, Honduras students explained to all their classmates what it means to be deported. “He said, “If you’re from Venezuela, you’re back there. If you’re from El Salvador, you’re back there and he pointed out himself, “Because I’m from Honduras, I’m from , I’ll go back there.”
Fearful, Roy attempted to make sure the kids were trying to make sure that everyone could stay where they were, and that they had the safety to not put ice in school. “I said, ‘You know, if they really send you back, I’ll come too. We’re going to go to the beach,” he said.
Some older children are worried about what to do to support undocumented parents. Stephanie Garcia, director of the Community Schools at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), said she emphasized the importance of focusing on schools. , “Make sure there’s nothing extra that my parents are worried about right now.”
With after-school programs and community events, BPNC also encourages older children and young adults to know their rights and make plans with their parents. “It’s difficult to encourage high school freshmen to come up with a plan for deportation just in case,” she said. “Unfortunately, I’m here.”
IT is a scene that unfolds in many cities. In New York, teachers use encrypted group chats to warn each other about immigrants and customs enforcement (ICE) sightings, while residents escort undocumented immigrant children coming and going to schools I volunteer to do so. In Los Angeles on Monday, principal Albert Carvalho said attendance across the US’s second-largest district fell by 20%, with about 80,000 students missing. He attributed the absence to both fear and activity as students participated in national protests against Trump’s immigration policy.
“We have to understand this,” said Emma Rozano, pastor at Lincoln United Methodist Church in Chicago and a member of the city’s school board. “They are hurting our kids, our babies, so it’s just getting me. That’s not right.”
Parents also struggle to explain the attack on their children. “They’re sad, they’re scary,” said Lucy, who has an 8-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son. “And I have to explain racism and how is it introduced?”
What she really helped was recruiting her children to help her give her “know your rights” flyer after school to the family. “They’ll be really happy, ‘We’re going to help a lot of people!”
I have to explain racism and how we are introduced
Lucy
Lucy, her husband and her children are all American citizens, but some of their extended family, cousins and close friends have lived in Chicago for years without documentation. The Guardian does not print surnames to protect their families from immigration enforcement.
Last week, a federal agent descended into the city’s immigration district, and Lucy said he was running groceries for his loved ones without documents that were too nervous to leave the house, and taking the child. We offered to do pick-up and drop-off for parents worried about worrying school.
“I’m nervous, we’re all a little nervous,” said Sylvia, a mother of four, including two in Chicago grade. “But we have the confidence that if something bad happens to us, we are supported by our community, our organization here.”
The Guardian has not published Sylvia’s last name. Because she has not been documented and could be targeted by immigration enforcement. Sylvia herself volunteers at Resurrection Project, an immigration advocacy group that distributes immigrant rights information to local businesses and helps link other immigrants to legal aid.
The attacks are constantly happening, she said – this isn’t all that new. “There’s a lot of bad information being handed over right now, causing panic,” she said. “But if we have good information, we don’t need to be afraid.”
She accused her eldest son. She is 26 years old and has temporary permission to stay in the United States. If she and her husband are arrested or deported, they are caring for children ages 8 and 14. They also have a folder with all the important documents of the family, as well as a suitcase that your son can bring or send to Mexico.
Other than that, she said she continues to show up at school to take her kids off. Her husband is still going to work. “If we are afraid, we can be scared to our children, right?” she said. “So we’re calm…and we follow the same routine.”
