Dive Brief:
- Immigration enforcement officers apprehended a parent during morning student drop-off hours in California’s Chula Vista Elementary School District on Wednesday — marking at least the third known time Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have arrested family members during school pick-up or drop-off time.
- While the arrest was not on public school grounds, it took place near school property, outside of the district’s Enrique S. Camarena Elementary School. CVESD Superintendent Eduardo Reyes told families and staff in a community message after the incident that the district serves all students “regardless of citizenship or immigration status.”
- In addition, Reyes said the district has “strong protocols in place to prevent unauthorized access to our schools.” The superintendent said the protocols include limiting access for law enforcement, who aren’t allowed to interact with students “unless there is an immediate threat to school safety, such as an active emergency or a signed warrant by a judge.”
Dive Insight:
“The district remains committed to reassuring families that CVESD remains a safe space for all students,” Giovanna Castro, communications director for the district, said in a statement after the ICE arrest, as reported by local Fox 5 News.
Under a January policy change from the Trump administration, ICE can conduct raids on school grounds, among other sensitive locations, which were previously protected from immigration enforcement. Districts have said the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security policy is impacting student attendance and stoking anxieties among their immigrant families.
While DHS clarified to K-12 Dive in June that such immigration enforcement activity on school grounds would be “extremely rare,” there have been a handful of incidents on elementary school grounds and during school pick-up and drop-off hours in recent months…