This story is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
While the news cycle has largely moved on from the horrific violence in Minneapolis that dominated our screens early this year, the danger has not disappeared. Our nation’s children still live in fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents abducting classmates, parents and teachers on schoolhouse grounds. Some kids are too afraid to leave the house, and others can’t focus on their schoolwork, sick with anxiety about whether their family will be there to greet them when they get home.
We all remember the image of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, abducted alongside his father when they arrived home one day, the boy still wearing his Spiderman backpack and favorite bunny ear hat. Unfortunately, Liam’s story is far from unique. Thousands of children have been abducted and incarcerated in squalid detention centers without a clue as to what their or their families’ futures hold. Their absence is a constant reminder to their classmates, friends, and neighbors that their communities’ children are still in danger. What happens to our communities when our public spaces aren’t safe, our neighborhoods aren’t safe, and now we know our schools aren’t safe either?
Safe spaces should be safe for everyone. That’s why we, along with our partners at Innovation Law Lab, National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers filed an emergency motion in our federal lawsuit, PCUN v. Noem last month to demand an immediate end to ICE violence in places like schools and hospitals. These so-called sensitive locations used to be off-limits to ICE’s brutal tactics, keeping our sacred community spaces safe for all our neighbors. But now, nowhere is free from danger. We’re seeking reinstatement of these protections.
While the situation in Minneapolis prompted our emergency motion, the declarations we received from people across the country proved that the problem is a whole lot bigger. In our legal filing, we shared the stories of 60 educators and healthcare providers representing 18 states. We heard the same fears and anxieties from people from Alaska to Ohio to Maryland. It didn’t matter if it was a “red” or a “blue” state; or if the stories came from cities or rural communities — ICE violence is impacting every corner of the United States.
This violence has serious consequences: we learned that the trauma of ICE activity affects everyone, regardless of immigration status. That includes documented and undocumented immigrant communities, neighbors who witness ICE operations, administrators at schools and hospitals who care for immigrant families, and friends, colleagues, and loved ones who fear for each other’s safety.
“Knowing that I cannot guarantee students’ safety in my own classroom is a day-to-day stress that wears me down,” an educator from Arkansas shared in our legal filing. “ I knew that part of my job could involve protecting my kids from someone with a gun. Now, in addition to that, I have to worry that there might be masked federal agents about to swarm in with guns, too.”
A recent study from UCLA confirms that “the fear is everywhere” in our schools. The study found that more than two-thirds (70.4%) of U.S. public high schools were impacted by the threat of ICE activity.
Children from immigrant families increasingly aren’t showing up for school. When they do, they face bullying due to their perceived immigration status, are despondent or show signs of severe emotional distress, or need more help from their teachers and administrators than a school can reasonably be expected to provide. The available data shows us that this is widespread and it is devastating.
We already have evidence from other studies showing how immigration enforcement in other contexts, such as family separation and detention, is bad for kids. We don’t need longitudinal studies to show us that immigration enforcement in schools is already having a negative impact on kids, their families, and communities.
ICE raids don’t just affect kids in the moment. Especially with the major disruptions to school activity we’ve seen in Minneapolis and at schools around the country that have experienced ICE enforcement, this is causing major barriers to essential learning and development.
We shouldn’t have had to file this lawsuit. It should be the easiest thing to agree on, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum: kids deserve to be safe in their classrooms. Parents shouldn’t fear taking their children to the hospital when they are sick or injured.
This administration wants you to believe that smashing car windows in the school drop-off line or waiting with guns outside a hospital are the only ways to meaningfully enforce our nation’s immigration laws. They are not.
Yet time and again this administration has itself demonstrated utter disregard for the rule of law. Despite the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric about backing away from mass deportation, ICE is still detaining anyone they want, citizens and lawfully present immigrants included. This isn’t about immigration enforcement or the rule of law. It’s about making immigrants, their loved ones, and anyone who tries to protect them, terrified to live their lives.
Those are not the governing principles that I want any of our children to grow up with.
We are not powerless. Everyday, people are stepping up to help each other out and make sure they have plans in place for the worst case scenario. Parents and neighbors are teaming up to monitor school drop-off lines. Teachers and school administrators are working overtime to support their students and staff, adjusting to the new environment of fear and stress that our government’s immigration policies are imposing upon us all.
Collectively — and in stark contrast to the actions of this administration — neighbors are actively and intentionally creating the communities we want to live in. We are working to keep each other healthy and safe, and building towards a reality in which we are governed not by fear, but by care for one another.
