As the Trump administration has pursued a hard line on illegal immigration with an emphasis on arrests and deportations, school districts across the country are adopting policies that officials say will help protect undocumented students and their parents from such enforcement.
The Hackensack school board is the latest to adopt protocols on what school employees must do if they are ever asked to disclose information about students or if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers comes to one of the district’s schools.
Though the policy aims to allay fears among parents and students, and it states it will give parents or caregivers notice if ICE is looking for their child or requesting records, the policy in effect only reinforces existing practices. Schools are already limited in what information they can collect from students, and ICE officials say agency officers avoid conducting enforcement in schools except under special circumstances, and only after they get approval.
“Immigrant youth will feel comfortable knowing that the school administration, staff and leadership are committed to enhancing their educational experience and are not wasting precious time and resources working with ICE,” said Johanna Calle, a Hackensack school trutsee who pushed for the policy, and is the director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
This week, Emiio K. Dabul, an ICE spokesman in Newark, confirmed that the agency designates all schools, including colleges and universities, as “sensitive locations,” places to be avoided unless there is prior approval. The same goes for school activities and school bus stops that are known to officers, though only at times when children are present, according to ICE’s website.
“The policy is intended to guide ICE officers and agents’ actions when enforcing federal law at, or focused on, sensitive locations, to enhance the public understanding and trust, and to ensure that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so, without fear or hesitation,” according to a statement on the ICE website.
Dabul said that ICE does not call schools for student addresses or other personal information.
The policy in Hackensack was adopted nearly two months after some immigrant advocates in Highland Park reported that two Indonesian Christian men had been arrested by ICE officers as they dropped their children off at school. The incident led state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal to ask for a review of the arrests, but Dabul, the ICE spokesman, said at the time that they did not take place “on or near school grounds.”
Ed Barocas, legal director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said it’s still unclear where the Indonesian Christians were apprehended. The Hackensack policy, he said, ensures that existing practices are followed.
“It makes sure that in Hackensack that students and their families have some protection, that they feel safe regardless of the whims of immigration authorities,’’ he said.
Calle said that it was important for Hackensack district employees to have guidelines on what to do in case ICE officers show up at one of its schools.
“It’s important to codify because you want to make sure that all staff members are clear on what to do if ICE agents come to schools,” she said. “Sometimes, even a local law enforcement officer doesn’t know what’s required of them.”
If ICE officers show up at a Hackensack school, the policy says they will be permitted to enter school grounds only when required by law, and only after administrators have consulted with the superintendent and the school district’s attorney. School employees must also request a valid judicial warrant, not administrative ones.
Under Hackensack’s new policy, the district will not be allowed to collect personal information from students beyond their age, address and immunization history. The policy states that by limiting the data that can be collected, it minimizes the risk of exposing the immigration status of students or their caregivers.
“The idea would be that we control what kind of data we collect to make sure that we’re not inadvertently putting families in danger,” Calle said.
Existing state law prevents schools from asking students about their immigration status when enrolling in school.
In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that held that immigrants living in the United States illegally could not be excluded from public elementary and secondary schools based upon their immigration status. New Jersey has instituted its own regulations on the issue, and in 2013 passed a law requiring the state Department of Education to remind school districts twice a year of their obligation to follow federal law by enrolling resident students without asking about their immigration status.
State regulations prohibit school districts from requiring or requesting Social Security numbers; income tax returns; and documentation relating to citizenship, immigration or visa status, except for students who have student visas to study in the United States. U.S. on tuition bases.
School districts have violated the law in the past, drawing legal challenges. In 2014, for instance, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey sued the Butler schools for enforcing a policy that required parents to show a driver’s license or state- or county-issued identification when they registered their children for school. Butler dropped the photo identification requirement soon after the lawsuit was filed.
Calle said nearly 40 percent of Hackensack’s student population are immigrants. She said the policy will help foster trust between residents and community leaders.
Joe Barreto, a former Hackensack school board member and the father of a high school senior, said he was surprised that such a policy didn’t already exist in the district. He said it is necessary because there have been recent reports of ICE officers making arrests in courthouses — a practice that also has drawn criticism. Stuart Rabner, the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, requested last year that federal immigration officials stop arresting undocumented immigrants at courthouses, saying the practice sends a “chilling message.”
“It just helps add another layer of security for parents and their kids,’’ Barreto said of the Hackensack policy. “I get why they are bringing it up, but I think it should have been done a while ago.”
Barreto said he does not oppose the provision in the policy that requires administrators to notify a caregiver if their child is being targeted by ICE. “If the underlying intent is to kind of help parents, especially those of younger kids, not to have them consumed on a daily basis, and be in fear of coming out of their houses, then I understand it,” he said.
Arrests on immigration violations have risen by nearly 40 percent since Donald Trump became president after running on a platform of expanding immigration enforcement and building a wall on the southern border.