ICE Director Says Agents Won’t Be at DC Schools as Classes Start
Immigration and customs’ application agents (ICE) should not be in schools in the national capital when courses start on Monday, acting director Todd Lyons recently told NBC News.
Nowsweek contacted Ice to comment by e-mail on Saturday.
Why it matters
President Donald Trump is committed to launching the largest mass deportation operation in the history of the United States. The initiative experienced an intensification of ice raids across the country, thousands of people who have been swept away, arrested and detained. Shortly after taking office, Trump issued the policies of the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) to limit where the arrests of ice can take place, which has given him the right to lead raids in places of worship, schools and hospitals.
The national capital has been under the spotlight in recent weeks after Trump said on August 11 that the city had been “overwhelmed by violent gangs and thirsty blood, itinerant crowds of wild young people, drugged maniacs and homeless.” He deployed troops, officers and federal agents in Washington, DC, as part of a repression against crime and homelessness.
What to know
While the school year is starting in the United States, the first day of lessons for DC (DCPS) public schools is Monday, August 25. Lyons told NBC News in an interview earlier this week that “on the first day, you are not going to see us”, but noted that there could be circumstances where ice officers may have to come to schools in the future.
Lyons said that one of these circumstances could be to carry out security and well-being on students, declaring: “We want to use our special agents and our officers to move forward and locate these individuals. And if [there are] Some that we did not do it, and the last known address was in a school, we just want to make sure that the child is safe. If we have the possibility of bringing this parent together with this child, this is what we want to do. “”
Lyon noted that in “demanding” circumstances, the officers would arrive at school, including “something violent taking place”. At the national level, there have been several arrests of parents’ ice in the property of the school, including one in a nursery school in Oregon. In addition, some students, including a teenager in Los Angeles, were also detained.
A researcher from the University of Stanford reported in June that the Ice “from the raids increased the absences of school students because parents fear being separated from their children”, research “of recent raids have coincided with a 22% increase in the daily absences of students with a particularly significant increase in the youngest students”.
The ice has repeatedly maintained that he targets people without appropriate documentation and criminal history and works to extend his strength with 10,000 agents. The agency obtained billions of funds from The One Big Beautiful Bill.
AP Photo / Fran Ruchalski
What people say
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel said at a press conference this week: “I think people who have this concern for themselves personally and for all of us who are concerned about us and their safety brings adjustments.”
Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Security, said in a previous declaration shared with Nowsweek:: “Noem undersecretary, we deliver the mandate of President Trump and the American people to arrest and deport criminals to make America safe. Secretary Noem has unleashed the ice to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest operation to deport criminal foreigners in American history.”
What happens next?
Ice seeks to considerably increase its strength, offering signature bonuses up to $ 50,000, student loan payments, a reimbursement of tuition fees and departure wages that can approach $ 90,000.
