On Friday, undocumented immigrants, banned from Head Start and career and technical education programs and adult education earlier this month, were granted a reprieve through Sept. 3 in the 20 states — and the District of Columbia — where attorneys general fought the Trump administration’s recent directive to kick them out, according to . The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Labor all agreed to the delay.

From cradle to career, President Donald Trump has launched a comprehensive campaign to close off education to undocumented immigrants, undercutting, advocates say, the very reason many came to the United States: for a chance at a better life. 

Preschoolers without legal status are now banned from Head Start and older students and adults without papers are blocked from career, technical and adult education. Some states are rescinding in-state college tuition for those here illegally and K-12 schools are being targeted by the president’s sweeping immigration enforcement crackdown

The affecting Head Start enrollment was released July 10. The federally funded early education program was created in 1965 to help underprivileged children succeed in school.

On the same day, the U.S. Department of Education shut the door on older undocumented students and adults hoping to gain job skills, earn dual enrollment credits or learn to read. Education Secretary Linda McMahon : “Under President Trump’s leadership, hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities.”

The nation’s K-12 public schools, filling the vast middle between early education and college and careers, have been leveraged in the administration’s aggressive, deportation effort with federal agents arresting and detaining students and . 

These and other enforcement tactics have terrified newcomer families to the point that some students are , prompting educators to suggest a solution that was once unthinkable: a return to remote learning.

“I know districts are contending with, you know, ‘Do we move to the hybrid approach that we learned how to do back in the pandemic in the fall so that students are not subject to ICE raids by just walking in the classroom door?” Amy Loyd, head of CTE and adult education under former education secretary Miguel Cardona, told ����Ӱ��.

has already started offering this option, a nod to the numerous barriers undocumented young people already face in pursuing higher education. Cost is among the most pressing; these students . 

The financial hurdle was alleviated when at least two dozen states, often with bipartisan support, extended in-state college tuition to local high school graduates who lack legal status. These policies, some in place for decades, are now under attack by the Trump administration. 

The president in the spring saying the policies needed to stop because they offered more affordable in-state tuition rates “to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.” In June, the justice department sued to end the practice, setting students adrift. Within hours, the voluntarily agreed to abolish its program, the oldest in the country. 

was first to act, moving to eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students in February. 

Augustus Mays, the vice president of EdTrust, an equity-focused advocacy group, called out the bigger picture in reacting to the CTE and adult education restrictions earlier this month. 

“Let’s be clear: this move is part of a broader, deeply disturbing trend,” he said in a statement. “This is not about protecting taxpayers. It’s about punishing students. This administration is choosing to weaponize policy against hope itself.”

On July 23, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights , including the University of Miami and the University of Michigan, for offering scholarships to undocumented students protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives them the right to live and work in this country. The inquiries will examine whether granting scholarships to DACA recipients discriminates against American-born college-goers.

“As we mark President Trump’s historic six months back in the White House, we are expanding our enforcement efforts to protect American students and lawful residents from invidious national origin discrimination of the kind alleged here,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

The youngest — and the oldest — learners 

Sarah Orth is chief executive officer at the Blind Children’s Center, which was founded in Los Angeles in 1938. Its programs now include Head Start, which serves 85 early learners from birth to 5 years old.

“This move against Head Start is so egregious because infants and toddlers are the most vulnerable,” she said, adding she’s unsure how her program will identify and remove undocumented students. “Are the children who are already enrolled going to be grandfathered in or am I kicking the kids out next week? I have no idea. I have people on my staff who are crying because they are going to have to deliver this news.”

Orth said some families could never find the breadth of services their kids need in their home countries. She recalled one 4-year-old girl brought into the program by her parents, who were young and Spanish-speaking. Their daughter was visually impaired, had sensory issues and had not been exposed much to the outside world. 

“When they first enrolled her, dad would carry her from the car to the classroom and would never put her down,” Orth said. “If you tried to do that, she would lift her feet up because she didn’t know what was happening.”

Within six to eight months of enrolling in Head Start, the child was walking on her own — both indoors and outside — and playing with friends. As she grew in confidence, she was no longer “clinging to dad with the fear she had when she first came to us.”

Her parents also learned how important it was for her to have social-emotional connections, Orth said. 

An estimated 115,000 Head Start children and families could be impacted by the move to bar the undocumented. Together, they comprise roughly 16% of the program’s total 2024-25 enrollment, according to by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the program. The federal government of Head Start’s cost, devoting to the program in 2023.

“For 60 years, this program has never required that kind of [citizenship status] validation or verification,” said Luis Bautista, executive director of the Los Angeles County Office of Education Head Start and Early Learning Division, which serves some 7,000 children and families. “This is just adding to the fear and confusion families are experiencing amidst all of the other actions out there — including immigration.”

He called Trump’s move “extremely unfortunate,” adding that he doesn’t agree with the president’s characterization of kids born on foreign soil. 

“I don’t consider a child — especially a 3-year-old — to be illegal in any way,” Bautista said, adding money devoted to young minds is well spent. “Ninety percent of brain development happens before age 5. That is where the investment should be.”

It’s unclear how many older students will be affected by Trump’s citizenship restrictions. participated in CTE in the 2020-21 school year, the most recent year for which federal data is available, according to the Association for Career & Technical Education. 

Congress each year sends some for competitive grants to support CTE efforts across the country. These programs, through their funding, are required to support nine “special populations,” including single parents, those with disabilities and English learners. 

Loyd, who is now CEO of the advocacy organization , said she’s concerned about Trump’s focus on higher education, including CTE programs, which she said help students from all walks of life.

“Basically, we are relegating high school students to entry-level, dead-end jobs,” she said. “It’s just mean-spirited and certainly consistent with the administration’s commitment to undermine the vital presence of immigrants in our nation. It’s so dehumanizing.”

The $715 million the federal government spends on adult education , adults and out-of-school teens 16 and older. The funding, among the $7 billion temporarily frozen by Trump this summer, covers a range of programs, including high school diploma equivalency, adult literacy and vocational job training for people with disabilities. 

The programs are run by . Many . 

An adult education teacher in Indiana told ����Ӱ�� that the 300-plus immigrants in her program — many from Haiti, Guinea and Senegal — enroll to learn English and earn a high school diploma equivalency. Some of the younger students, she said, use the program to prepare for college while the older participants hope it will help them land better-paying jobs. 

The teacher, who asked not to be identified because she feared losing funding for her program, described her students as “the most respectful, grateful people I have ever met in my life.” 

She said they respond with copious appreciation even for a gift as small as a pencil.

“I’ll say, ‘Just take it,’ and they will use it until it’s down to the nub,” she said. “They are just so eager to learn.”

Will Plyler be next?

The administration is changing the narrative around programs like Head Start and CTE, moving them away from their educational roots and the view that they were beneficial to the economy and casting them instead as federal public benefits. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for such programs, including food assistance and non-emergency Medicaid.

Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at EdTrust, asserted that this is part of a wider strategy by the president to scapegoat some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

“This is not a new trope,” he said, adding that German, Irish and other immigrant groups were similarly castigated upon their arrival to America, fueled by the notion that newcomers “are taking something that belongs to you, that they are getting a benefit you don’t receive.”

And while many of Trump’s initiatives are facing legal challenges — 21 Democratic attorneys general earlier this month over the and directives — the president has prevailed in his efforts on immigration. 

With each new announcement, immigrant advocates worry Trump could be inching closer to dismantling or undermining Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status. Some immigrant advocates fear his administration might try to argue that a free, public education is also a public benefit program — and so off-limits to undocumented K-12 students.

The U.S. is home to roughly undocumented residents. In 2021, the American Community Survey ages 5 to 17 who had been in the United States for three years or less, and another 1.5 million immigrant children living here four years or more, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and architect of the president’s immigration crackdown, searched for ways to undercut Plyler. In June, one of the authors of the conservative playbook, who has proposed challenging or overturning the ruling, became the Education Department’s newest . Both Texas and have recently tried to weaken K-12 protections for undocumented students.

Pamela Broussard, a Texas-based educator and advocate for English learners, said overturning Plyler “would betray the very principles upon which public education was founded.”

She maintained that education is a right — not a privilege — and that all students deserve to be supported in their learning.

“When any group of children is denied access to education, we create an underclass more likely to face poverty, unemployment and social marginalization,” she told ����Ӱ��. “At its core, Plyler v. Doe affirmed that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment applies to all people, not just citizens.”

Undocumented students in Texas are no longer eligible for in-state tuition after Texas agreed Wednesday with the federal government’s demand to stop the practice.

The abrupt end to Texas’ 24-year-old law came hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Texas over its policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower tuition rates at public universities. Texas quickly asked the court to side with the feds and find that the law was unconstitutional and should be blocked, which did.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed credit for the outcome, saying in a statement Wednesday evening that “ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” echoing the argument made by Trump administration officials.

“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Wednesday. “The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.”

The Justice Department filed its lawsuit in the Wichita Falls division of the Northern District of Texas, where . ��※��DzԲԴǰ�, appointed by President George W. Bush, has long been a favored judge for the Texas attorney general’s office and conservative litigants.

Texas began granting in-state tuition to undocumented students in 2001, becoming the first state to extend eligibility. A bill to end this practice advanced out of a Texas Senate committee for the first time in a decade this year but stalled before reaching the floor.

The measure, , would have repealed the law, and also required students to cover the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition should their school determine they had been misclassified. It would have allowed universities to withhold their diploma if they don’t pay the difference within 30 days of being notified and if the diploma had not already been granted.

Republican Sen. of Galveston authored the legislation, which would have prohibited universities from using any money to provide undocumented students with scholarships, grants or financial aid. It would have also required universities to report students whom they believe had misrepresented their immigration status to the attorney general’s office and tied their funding to compliance with the law.

Responding to the filing Wednesday, Middleton on social media that he welcomed the lawsuit and hoped the state would settle it with an agreement scrapping eligibility for undocumented migrants.

Middleton is in next year’s GOP primary, as incumbent vacates the seat to run for the U.S. Senate.

The House contemplated similar legislation to Middleton’s bill. Under by state Rep. , R-Angleton, undocumented students 18 or older would have been required to provide proof that they had applied to become a permanent U.S. resident to be eligible for in-state tuition. That measure also died in committee.

To qualify for in-state tuition under the law that was struck down Wednesday, undocumented students must have lived in the state for three years before graduating from high school and for a year before enrolling in college. They must also sign an affidavit stating they will apply for legal resident status as soon as they can.

Texas Higher Education Commissioner Wynn Rosser told lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee earlier this year that about 19,000 undocumented students have signed that affidavit.

Sen. , R-Georgetown, pressed Rosser to provide more information about students who had signed affidavits, including how many receive financial aid from the state. Rosser said he was unsure.

“We have a constitutional duty regarding K-12, but higher education does not have that duty regarding funding of non-citizens,” Schwertner said. “From a policy perspective, if we’re for big, strong, secure borders and walls, then we should also be looking on the back end of what we incentivize, or not incentivize, individuals that are coming across our borders illegally against federal law and state law.”

Before Wednesday’s ruling, Texas was one of 24 states, including the District of Columbia, to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.

This issue has come before the courts before. In 2022, a district court ruled that federal law prevented the University of North Texas from offering undocumented immigrants an educational benefit that was not available to all U.S. citizens. The threw out that case on procedural grounds, but noted there likely were “valid preemption challenges to Texas’ scheme.” Trump administration lawyers repeatedly cited that finding throughout Wednesday’s filing.

“States like Texas have been in clear violation of federal law on this issue,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the conservative think tank that brought the 2022 lawsuit. “If anything, it’s surprising that this wasn’t brought earlier.

Don Graham, a co-founder of , the largest scholarship program for undocumented students, said these young people already face significant hurdles to get to college. They cannot access federal grants and loans, so legal action to rescind in-state tuition could prevent them from completing or enrolling in college altogether, he noted.

“It’ll mean that some of the brightest young students in the country, some of the most motivated, will be denied an opportunity for higher education,” Graham said. “And it’ll hurt the workforce, it’ll hurt the economy.”

Hundreds of Texas students who have been awarded a scholarship went into nursing and education, professions that are struggling with shortages. Recent from the American Immigration Council suggests rescinding in-state tuition for undocumented students in the state could cost Texas more than $460 million a year from lost wages and spending power.

The loss of thousands of students will also have an immediate financial impact on universities, according to available data. About 20,000 students using the law to enroll at Texas universities paid over $81 million in tuition and fees in 2021, according to a from progressive nonprofit Every Texan. In the wake of the court’s ruling, advocates said stifling those enrollments would create cascading effects.

“This policy has been instrumental in providing access to higher education for all Texas students, regardless of immigration status, and dismantling it would not only harm these students but also undermine the economic and social fabric of our state,” said Judith Cruz, assistant director for the Houston region for EdTrust in Texas.

At least one organization, , which goes by its Spanish acronym FIEL, released a statement saying it would challenge the court’s judgment. “Without in-state tuition, many students who have grown up in Texas, simply will not be able to afford three or four times the tuition other Texas students pay,” FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa said. “This is not just.”

Espinosa was one of dozens of witnesses who spoke against any repeal of the tuition law during a House committee hearing on HB 232 in April. The hearing stretched into the early morning hours as former students relayed how the law changed their lives for the better and gave them opportunities to become successful. In Espinosa’s case, it allowed him and his three siblings — including one who testified alongside him — to go to college in state and maintain successful careers in Texas.

“I’m here 24 years later to tell you that this works, and this is not a giveaway, but rather, this is something that all Texans deserve,” Espinosa said during the April hearing.

This article originally appeared in at . The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Brian came to the United States from Mexico when he was just 2 years old. He had no idea how he would pay for a four-year degree until he won designed for students like him. A business management major, he graduated from Northeastern Illinois University in 2020 and now lives in Virginia, where he works in education policy and also owns several rental properties. 

“I always pushed myself, but the biggest push of all came from my parents,” said Brian, a lawful permanent resident who asked to be identified by his first name only for fear he could be . “They would ask us to pursue our education because that’s why they came here. They wanted us to make a better life than what they were able to.”

College graduates like Brian with temporary immigration statuses might not be the primary focus of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation effort, but they are no less alarmed by the forced removal of those with

Much of the nation’s attention has fallen on undocumented laborers — an Episcopal bishop in January to show mercy to “the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals” —but the administration’s deportation scope is widening and has grown to ensnare those .

More than of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants have earned at least a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2022 report from the Center for Migration Studies of New York. Ernesto Castañeda, director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Immigration Lab at American University, said many people underestimate this group’s educational attainment. 

Most don’t know some immigrants are more credentialed than Americans upon arrival, he said. For example, ages 25 or older reported having a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2023 compared to 36% of U.S.-born Americans, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Deporting this population would mean an enormous drain of “brain and brawn,” Castañeda said. 

“If we expel those people, there would be a big economic loss — and a loss of decades of innovation and scientific discovery, as well as in arts and culture,” he said.

While Trump’s immigrant policies have been cited for making it more difficult to fill , and jobs, it will also shrink the nation’s pool of highly skilled workers, said Prerna Arora, associate professor of psychology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

“Do we have the necessary workforce to complete the things that we need done, especially in a modernizing society?” she asked. “So many of these [college-educated, undocumented] people — and this is what happens across fields — want to go back and help communities from which they are a part.”

Higher education in the crosshairs

More than undocumented students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities in 2023, representing 1.9% of all college students. The figure was higher pre-pandemic when it stood at 427,000 in 2019. The American Immigration Council attributes some of the decline to COVID and ongoing legal challenges to , the Obama-era program that gave temporary deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, allowing them to study and work.

One Florida lawmaker now seeks to from state colleges and universities entirely: they’ve already lost access to Texas is  

Trump has made higher education a key focus of his immigration enforcement actions, targeting international students — many because of their political speech or protest actions around the war in Gaza. Thousands have as part of his crackdown, though the administration recently in the face of court challenges.

Still, these international students’ future remains unclear. They are increasingly as to raid dorms, and place them in far from home. 

Another academic, a 32-year-old woman from Senegal, who has lawful permanent resident status but asked that her name be withheld because she , called these removals heartbreaking and unjust. 

“We should be investing and supporting young people, not criminalizing them,” said the woman, who came to the United States with her family at age 7.

She grew up in Harlem and scored high enough on the selective admissions exam to be accepted to Brooklyn Technical, one of New York City’s premier public high schools. A law and society major, she graduated from Brooklyn Tech in 2011. 

It was an enormous accomplishment. Her father had no formal schooling in his home country and her mother attended only through the ninth grade. Their daughter has a master’s degree. 

“My life and achievements are proof of what results when we make these investments,” she said. “So apart from the devastating impact these actions have on these young people’s lives, these actions harm communities — and all of us as a country.”

Roughly 88% of undocumented higher ed students are enrolled as undergraduates and 12% are in graduate or professional schools. Forty-five percent are Hispanic, 24.9% are Asian, 15.2% are Black and 10.8% are white, according to the , which based its findings on data from a one-year sample of the 2022 American Community Survey. 

California, Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey make up the top five states with the most undocumented higher education students. More than 27% of undocumented graduate students nationally earned their undergraduate degree in a STEM field.

David Blancas, 37, got his bachelor’s degree in secondary education and mathematics at Illinois’ Aurora University in 2009 — he was a stellar student and won a scholarship that covered most of the cost — and worked as a math teacher in Chicago public schools for five years.

He got his master’s in urban education from National Louis University in Chicago in 2013 — also funded by grants and scholarships — and currently works in a leadership role at an organization that helps renters become homeowners through counseling and financial assistance.

Like Brian, Blancas, born in Mexico, came to the United States as a toddler. His father arrived in Chicago first to secure a job — as a busboy and then a cook — and an apartment before his wife and children joined him.

Blancas is the first in his family to graduate from college: His mother dropped out of school before eighth grade and his father stopped attending by ninth grade. 

But they always prized education. 

“They loved school,” Blancas said. “They constantly talked about how they were good at it and how they were very sad that they couldn’t continue because of financial reasons. To them, education was like the biggest thing.”

The Senegalese-born scholar said the same, despite the obstacles she faced: She wasn’t aware of her citizenship status until she was told that she needed a Social Security number to fill out the federal financial aid form for college and found out she didn’t have one. Thankfully, she said, she was accepted by DACA and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Hunter College in 2015. 

She worked 35 hours a week in a retail store to cover her tuition and soon joined , which recruits college graduates to serve in high-need schools. She paid for her master’s at the out-of-pocket with her teaching salary. She eventually became an assistant principal and now works in policy and advocacy for a national nonprofit aimed at helping schools better serve all students — including immigrants. 

Living that suburban American life

and state police are in its and deportation push. Chicago, where Brian grew up, is a sanctuary city, one that has pledged by law not to cooperate in these efforts. The president has taken aim at with Chicago its most prominent target: The Justice Department is the city and the state of Illinois for allegedly impeding its enforcement campaign.

As a boy and a young man, Brian wanted to be a part of the Chicago Police Department and spent hours watching Law & Order SVU to get a sense of that life. He applied for a job there as soon as he earned his associate degree. 

“That’s when they told me they didn’t accept DACA recipients,” he said. “I was heartbroken. I did the physical, I did the mental exam and everything, and they did the vetting — they interviewed my neighbors and other people. It was a hard reality check. It was difficult for me to accept that.”

After the setback, he pushed on.

“It’s not just about me or my family,” said Brian, who also works in education policy with an eye toward immigrant students. “It’s for my entire community — to break that stigma that undocumented immigrants are uneducated or that we’re lazy or that we’re just mooching off of the system. People don’t know that for DACA, you have to go through a background check. You have to pay a fee, show that you’re working, you’re paying taxes, that you’re going to school.”

It’s frustrating to see people fighting to end the program, he said. Blancas, also allowed to work under DACA, agrees. He has a wife and two children and lives what he described as a typical middle-class life. 

He said he understands America’s desire to protect its border, to ensure entry to only those who will add to the economy. But that’s exactly what they are getting from the very people they are trying to chase out, he argued. 

“We have our own house,” Blancas said. “We both have really great jobs that give back to the community. We’re able to provide a great life for our children. We’re living that suburban American life, which is amazing.”

was originally reported by Nadra Nittle of .

LOS ANGELES — Scattered among the shrubs on the southern border lie belongings migrants left behind — toothbrushes, water bottles, baseball caps. Some of the owners forged north, crossing the boundary undetected. Others were apprehended or succumbed to dehydration, drowning or one of the unimaginable dangers in the harsh desert that straddles Mexico and the United States.

Angélica Reyes survived. At nine months old, she made the journey that could have claimed her life just as it started.

Since 1994, in the borderlands. That year, the (NAFTA) took effect. Designed to open trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico, the now-defunct policy has faced criticism for depressing Mexican wages. Their income flatlining, Reyes said, her parents left the city of Guadalajara, in the western part of Mexico, and headed with her to Los Angeles. They did not have authorization to live in the United States.

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Reyes is now 32, though she remembers knowing she was undocumented as early as first grade.

“My mom was very cognizant of the discrimination and the obstacles that I would face throughout my life,” she said. “She made it clear, like, ‘You can’t mess up. You need to be twice as good to get half of the respect. You need to really prove that you earned your spot.’”

To do that, Reyes earned the good grades that set her up to become a history teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is one of about — and among the undocumented people — who have received temporary permission to live, work and study in the United States through an Obama-era program known as . Women represent , whose future in this country has been under threat by legal challenges to the program’s existence and the anti-immigration agenda of President Donald Trump.

If DACA ends, the goal of ongoing litigation,  including teachers and teacher aides, would lose their jobs each month for two years as their work permits are revoked, according to FWD.us, an immigration reform organization. In California, the state with the most DACA recipients, 200 educators would lose their jobs monthly. In Texas, 100 would.

DACA-recipient teachers relate firsthand to the estimated , who confide in them about their experiences in immigrant families. They show youth that regardless of legal status, it’s possible to attain one’s professional goals. Many of these teachers are also activists, fighting for their students, themselves and other marginalized people. They see themselves as assets to schools.

“My immigration status inspires both my undocumented and documented students because they know all the obstacles that are faced by folks with my immigration status can be overcome,” Reyes said. “They know that if I could do it, that’s something that they could do as well.”

Without undocumented teachers, educator shortages across states could worsen. California has spent about . Still, the state issued 11 percent fewer teaching credentials between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Last year, it enacted legislation to eliminate barriers to entry, dropping a standardized test teaching candidates had to pass to demonstrate competence in math, reading and writing. But since undocumented immigrants aren’t widely perceived to be career professionals, the fact that schoolchildren nationwide depend on them has received scant attention in the broader immigration debate.

Maria Miranda, elementary vice president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) labor union, said undocumented teachers “bring a different perspective to the table, a different skill set.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teacher labor union, said DACA recipients in classrooms have strengthened the United States.

“They are role models, like all teachers, and should be treated as such, but instead, they are made to feel uncertain and fearful as their protections are challenged in court and as the Trump administration promotes mass deportations, even from like schools that were once considered off limits,” Weingarten said. “Immigration reform can’t be used as an excuse to rip teachers out of classrooms, where they are so desperately needed.”

When Reyes was about to register for the SAT during her senior year in high school, one misinformed guidance counselor asked her why she planned to take the college entrance exam, insisting that higher education was off limits to undocumented students.

“I was devastated. It broke my heart,” Reyes said. “I remember crying and telling my mom, ‘I worked hard, for what?’”

Since 2001, however, California has extended access to who have lived there long term. Unaware of this law and under the assumption that her counselor was correct, Reyes missed the deadline for the SAT and for the application to University of California schools, so she enrolled in a community college she could afford, a common path for many undocumented immigrants.

Then, in 2011, a state law was enacted that made her cry tears of gratitude: the . The policy allows undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before they were 16 to obtain financial aid if they’ve earned qualifying credits at California schools. These young people have been nicknamed Dreamers after the , a 2001 federal bill that would have given them legal status had it succeeded.

Reyes said that when she decided to apply to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a community college counselor took in her light brown skin and wavy black mane and without so much as seeing the 4.0 GPA in her transcript, told her to apply somewhere less competitive.

“I’m a competitive student!” Reyes recalled balking. “She opened my chart and she was, like, ‘Oh, you actually are.’ Her tune changed so quickly. It was really infuriating because if I had believed her, like many students believe counselors, I would have not gone to UCLA.”

In college, Reyes had to make a choice about her career path. Her research project on youth activism at Abraham Lincoln High School, where she graduated in 2010, had drawn her to education. “I realized that’s where I was needed,” she said.

It was at Lincoln High in March 1968 that students spearheaded the protests known as the Chicano Blowouts or East Los Angeles Walkouts. With signs stating almost from Lincoln and other schools in historically Mexican-American East L.A. walked out of classes for a week to protest their substandard education.

Back then, students could be paddled for speaking Spanish, and with few advanced courses at Eastside schools, they were routinely steered to vocational classes like auto shop. These inequities contributed to a . Jailed for their activism against these circumstances, the teenagers garnered community support that ushered in sweeping policy changes — bilingual instruction, ethnic studies and more Latino teachers.

Today, the �������Ծ������í����, bungalow homes and palm trees along North Broadway Avenue, leading to 93 acres of green hills, offer no hint of the past tumult, but a mural at Lincoln commemorates the walkouts of nearly six decades ago.

Through her research, which also explored youth activism of the 2010s, Reyes learned that contemporary Lincoln High students continued to have unmet needs, such as support applying for college financial aid or accessing legal services as members of immigrant households. So when Lincoln High teachers asked if she wanted to develop a space to serve students, Reyes threw herself into the effort. The — named after a lead activist of the Chicano Blowouts and the inspiration for the — opened at Lincoln in 2015.

“We established programming for immigrant students, for immigrant parents. We did immigrant and educational history,” Reyes said. “It’s still a resource for students at Lincoln, and we’ve expanded it to several other schools.”

Working at the Dream Center for three years convinced her that teaching was the best way to reach undocumented and marginalized youth. Rather than dismiss them, as she had been dismissed by school counselors, she would inspire students to excel academically regardless of legal status. In 2012, four years before she graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and six years before she earned her master’s in education from the university, DACA enabled undocumented students like herself to become career professionals.

In 2017, the year Reyes began teaching, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that as many as . But today the number of DACA-recipient educators is 25 percent lower as litigation has frozen new applications.

It’s complicated: Those two words capture Reyes’ feelings about DACA. Although the program allowed her to teach, she has long viewed it as flawed, exploitative and a “constant reminder” she isn’t “fully accepted.”

DACA stems from the activism of undocumented college students frustrated that the DREAM Act failed and that their immigration status would limit their potential, said Jennifer R. Nájera, author of “.” Fighting for immigrant rights, they found a purpose.

Like the DREAM Act, DACA was reserved for young people who came to the United States as children and didn’t have criminal histories. “They had to graduate from high school or college or go to the military, show ‘good moral character,’” said Nájera, an associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Instead of citizenship, Obama’s executive order “provided temporary relief from deportation, a two-year relief specifically, that could be renewed, and a work permit, which was a big deal.”

While DACA recipients cherished their professional opportunities, some contended that the policy cast them as second-class citizens, Nájera said.

That includes Reyes.

“I knew it was a Band-Aid,” she said. “In fact, when I first started teaching, my DACA expired because of an issue with the application. They had asked me if I was in a gang, and apparently I didn’t check off the X hard enough, so I wasn’t hired at the beginning of the year. I remember feeling this immense frustration.”

Los Angeles Unified employs about 300 DACA-recipient school personnel, according to Miranda of the UTLA labor union. As Reyes’ teaching career started, DACA weathered the first of multiple legal challenges. Trump rescinded the program during his first term, a move the Supreme Court later blocked; at the time, Reyes told her students about possibly losing her job. Since then, she has endured several other threats to DACA , though she’s now pained to tell her students that the program isn’t accepting new applicants.

DACA, she said, must be replaced with a sustainable alternative.

In a , Trump said, “We’re going to have to do something with” DACA recipients. “They were brought into this country many years ago” and “in many cases, they’ve become successful.”

But that sympathy has been absent from his immigration policies since he resumed office. He has issued an executive order . He has also lifted restrictions on immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals and schools, prompting parents nationwide to keep kids out of class.

“A lot of times, the children are U.S. citizens and the parents are concerned,” Reyes said. “But I’ve had students who shared that their parents are U.S. citizens, and they’re still scared because they know that U.S. citizens are also caught up in these raids. So, this isn’t about criminality. It’s about the targeting of Brown folks.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal authorities reportedly at least 10 U.S. citizens, , in the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.

Last month, the California state superintendent presented to limit ICE appearances at schools as absences have spiked — and schools could lose millions of dollars since their funding is tied to average daily student attendance. About half of California children belong to , while one in five live in mixed-status families with at least one undocumented parent.

“It’s very taxing emotionally for our members and our students,” Miranda said of ICE enforcement. “We have students at the elementary level who are terrified of seeing anyone in uniform. Some of them are so young that they don’t know the difference between the police and immigration. It’s a very scary moment.”

When Trump targeted DACA during his first term, that disbanding the program could upend public education. But now she says her students deserve more than DACA’s “breadcrumbs.”

“We need to fight for something new because my kids want to be chefs and doctors and lawyers, but they’re being held back by their immigration status,” she said. “It’s excruciating in two ways: One, I want my students to have the opportunities that they deserve to serve the community. And, two, I don’t know when I’m going to be taken from them because of my own uncertainty.”

For now, she knows that her presence makes a difference at her high school. Los Angeles Unified has an , according to UTLA. Of those, one in four is undocumented. After Reyes shared her immigration status with students during a recent lunchtime conversation, she said a ninth grader confessed that she planned to quit school because she, too, is undocumented. Learning Reyes managed to become a teacher made the girl reconsider.

“It was really beautiful to see that, like it reignited her hope to have a bright future,” Reyes said.

Although the risks of revealing her status frighten her, her conscience compels her to, Reyes said. She quoted Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata: “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

Staying silent as the president attacks immigrants would make it hard for Reyes to face the youth in her life — her son, especially.

Whenever a state turned red on Election Night, Nathan Reyes felt his anxiety shoot up. Still, he held out hope Kamala Harris would win. Then the Electoral College math made it plain: Donald Trump would be president again.

Although he’s a U.S. citizen, Nathan wondered what lay ahead for his undocumented relatives under a president promising mass deportations.

“I feel worried for them because if they get deported, what am I going to do?” he asked. “Where am I going to stay?”

So, he began to plan. He and his family would “have to pick our poison” — stay in a country hostile to their presence or self-deport together to Mexico regardless of citizenship status.

That her son, with a pile of ringlets and a round cherubic face, was even considering these options stunned Reyes. Nathan is in seventh grade.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this kid is 12,’” Angélica Reyes said. “Why is he talking about this?’”

Rummaging through a bin of childhood possessions in her mother’s bedroom last year, Reyes found a poem she wrote in fourth grade about her fear of police. Her parents were street food vendors, , so Reyes realized growing up that one brush with the law could have seen them deported.

Just as she did not have a childhood free of deportation fears, neither has her son.

Nathan, now 13, is hardly the only youth pondering the possibility of a relative’s departure, according to , a psychologist in Long Beach, California. She said children are leaving school with “Know Your Rights” cards advising them of their civil liberties during ICE encounters, but they may not understand the information.

“They’re just feeling fear,” she said. “They’re being told something’s gonna happen. So mental health wise, you’re looking at chronic anxiety. You’re looking at hypervigilance.”

To gain some sense of control, they may overconsume social media, leading to racing thoughts, rapid heart rate and sleeping difficulties.

“It’s this chronic nonstop anxiety because the state of uncertainty feels never-ending, and in many ways, it is not ending, right?” Sanchez said. “There’s different news every day.”

By speaking openly with children, parents can help them better manage stress, she said. Teachers, if they’re permitted, can broach the topic of immigration. Nathan appreciated how his Spanish teacher led a class discussion after the election.

“Sharing your feelings and emotions and finding that a lot of other people are feeling very similar can bring comfort to you,” he said.

Reyes gave birth to her son while she was in college and briefly wed to his father. She applied for legal status as an immediate family member of a U.S. citizen, her spouse. But years passed before the federal government responded to her request, she said. By then, her marriage had ended.

“I don’t think people understand how long the path to citizenship can be, what it looks like, how costly and time-intensive it is,” Sanchez said.

Reyes, who has not remarried, said being undocumented seeps into every aspect of her life, including romantic relationships. She feels obligated to tell prospective partners about her status.

“I remember to always be upfront, like, ‘Hey, I’m undocumented. I don’t want you to think I’m going to use you for papers,’” she said.

Reyes lives in one of the country’s , which include undocumented individuals and people with legal status or U.S. citizenship. If she gets deported, she has arranged for others to care for her son.

Her sister, two years younger, is a U.S. citizen. Asked if she resents that twist of fate, Reyes said, “I’m happy that she gets to be safe. I think that there’s a lot of pain and guilt for her.”

Her sister realizes, Reyes said, that her entire family could be taken away.

Should she be forced out of the only country she considers home, Reyes wants her son to know this: “I would never willingly leave you. I am dedicated to you. I love you, and I will always be working as hard as possible to get back to you.”

For Nathan, it is mind-boggling that anyone would want his mother out. He doesn’t understand why politicians demonize immigrants. Trump launched his first presidential campaign calling them criminals and continues to malign them.

“My mom has done a lot of good for her community,” Nathan said. “She has organized a finders keepers closet where people who don’t have some resources they need, like canned food or clothes, can take what they need.”

Just as Nathan defends her honor, Reyes vouches for her parents. Her mother is now a nail technician and her father is a food vendor. Growing up, she said, she watched them visit the sick, volunteer at churches and fundraise for the poor.

“Whenever they saw a need, they stepped up, and they didn’t wait for someone else to help,” she said.

She’s hurt when people sympathize with Dreamers while disparaging their parents, that the immigration system paints family members as saints or sinners. The DACA recipients she’s researched feel similarly, Nájera said.

“Many of the students that I interviewed were always talking about their parents,” Nájera said. “They did not want their stories to be divorced from their parents and their family stories. These families, they’re units.”

But the Dream Act caused a migrant generational divide, insinuating that those who arrived in this country as children deserve citizenship, while their parents and others who arrived as adults do not, Nájera said.

Migration often occurs out of necessity. For example, after NAFTA took effect in 1994, U.S. agricultural exports flooded Mexico, displacing workers, according to Edward Alden, a distinguished visiting professor in the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University. Four years earlier, over 4 million Mexican migrants were in the United States, a figure that ballooned to nearly 13 million — around 9 percent of Mexico’s population — by 2008.

Reyes said NAFTA crushed the bakery business her father’s side of the family owned because it could not compete with the U.S. companies that swooped in. Her parents migrated north to earn higher wages.

Today, economic instability is but one of the reasons that motivate migrants.

“A lot of the Venezuelans are leaving Venezuela because it’s a violent, dangerous place, and the government has destroyed the economy in different ways,” Alden said. “Same thing out of Central America. These are people who aren’t necessarily leaving for economic reasons. They’re doing it for personal safety reasons.”

Reyes said she has Central American students who fled horrors. She wants them to feel safe in the United States, and the fact Los Angeles Unified has pledged not to cooperate with immigration officials voluntarily provides some comfort. Run by a , the from entering two schools in April.

The fear of raids on campuses has traumatized her students, Reyes said. “It’s so difficult to convince my students that they are worthy of love and that they’re worthy of respect and that they deserve civil rights.”

It is equally difficult to keep advocating for herself, she said. But as the threat of deportation looms, she has no choice but to keep fighting.

“It’s hard to know that I can’t earn citizenship and that I can’t give my kid stability or safety,” she said. “I feel like if I could earn it, I would have three citizenships. I would have put in the work.”

Undocumented students in Colorado have gone on to be teachers, nurses, and business owners thanks to a program that allows them to pay in-state tuition at public universities.

Now the future of that program and ones like it in 23 other states are in doubt after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to punish states and cities with so-called sanctuary policies.

, signed on April 28, also specifically calls out programs that provide in-state tuition for undocumented students who graduated from high school in that state or who meet other residency requirements.

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Allowing in-state students who are not citizens to pay less tuition than out-of-state students who are citizens represents discrimination, according to the order, which says that the attorney general, in cooperation with the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, “shall identify and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of state and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful.”

Advocates for immigrant students say that without in-state tuition, many undocumented students will struggle to afford college. They don’t qualify for any federal financial aid and face other barriers to college.

“This is absolutely essential for immigrant students,” said Raquel Lane-Arellano, communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, which fought to pass Colorado’s in-state tuition law in 2013. “It’s not these students’ fault that our immigration system is so broken. They deserve the opportunity, just like all of their peers, to access higher levels of education.”

So far, Colorado universities are not making any immediate changes to their policies. “The executive order does not provide enough details to truly know what federal actions will be taken,” said Colorado Department of Higher Education spokesperson Megan McDermott.

The Trump order sets up a possible legal showdown over the state-supported tuition programs that immigrant rights and higher education-advising groups have called essential to help undocumented students access higher education and educate them to fill in-demand jobs.

Twenty-four states, including Colorado, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey, along with Washington, D.C. have programs that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition. While the programs have received bipartisan support, Republicans in have recently filed bills to consider rolling back in-state tuition for undocumented students. Last week, .

The order adds to an , who worry about the while grappling with deportation fears. Denver Scholarship Foundation’s Natasha Garfield said the college-advising nonprofit will continue to provide students information about their options and allow them to decide whether college is right for them during a time when Trump’s .

“There are some who are very, very concerned about the state of things, and I don’t think there’s anything that DSF or anyone else could say to reassure them,” said Garfield, the scholarship organization’s director of scholarships and financial aid. “I think that’s completely understandable given some of the actions that we’ve seen coming from ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the federal government.”

The order is part of Trump’s larger push to crack down on people in the United States without legal authorization. His directive to punish states with these programs also included several other enforcement actions such as punishing so-called sanctuary cities and states. The administration filed suit Friday against

The administration argues in the order that some state and local officials use their “authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of federal immigration laws. This is a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law.”

States have a long history of offering in-state tuition at public universities to youth who were brought as children and without legal status. Texas and California passed the first laws in 2001, and other states followed with similar laws. Each varies in how they approach granting in-state tuition.

About 408,000 undocumented students enroll in higher education each year, although not all benefit from these state programs, according to the . However, even in states without these laws, some private schools in Tennessee and elsewhere may offer in-state tuition for . And in Pennsylvania, at least .

Colorado’s Advising Students for a Stronger Tomorrow law, or ASSET, updated in 2019, says students must have attended a Colorado high school for at least one year before graduation or been physically present in Colorado for at least one year to qualify for in-state tuition.

New York’s law says students must have attended at least two years of high school in New York and graduate or receive a general education diploma. Students must also apply to a college or university within five years and show proof of residency. They must also sign an affidavit saying they will file for legal status.

Illinois’ law has similar requirements, while New Jersey requires three years of residency.

National student immigrant advocacy organizations , TheDream.US, and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration all criticized the order. Collectively, they said states, colleges, and universities shouldn’t overreact and that the order hurts states that need qualified workers.

“Blocking states from offering in-state tuition to undocumented students who have lived in these states for most of their lives would purposefully lock countless individuals out of the higher education system, waste years of educational investment, hurt local economies, and rob all Americans of future leaders,” said Todd Schulte, FWD.us president.

State leaders are still working to understand the impact of the order, and a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement the administration is looking into the impacts of this order. The state remains committed to ensuring the state remains a destination for all learners, the statement says.

The state has not filed any legal action against the order, but leaders have been willing to .

Colorado’s largest university system also doesn’t plan changes at this time. University of Colorado System spokesperson Michele Ames said its schools are committed to following applicable laws and will not make any changes at this time. Other universities, such as the University of Northern Colorado, are monitoring the actions.

Schools across the state have also said that they won’t release individual student information, such as information about undocumented students who attend schools through the ASSET program, to the federal government without a court order or warrant, per federal student privacy laws.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

For educators, one of the most jarring shifts is that schools are no longer considered areas that Immigration and Customs  Enforcement (ICE) should largely avoid. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman declared the day after the inauguration.

Huffman went on to say that the administration trusts agents to use “common sense” on or near school campuses to realize the promise to . This contradicts long-standing policy that sets aside schools, churches, and hospitals as where ICE agents should not carry out enforcement activities.

Already, the threat of such raids has stoked community-wide fears, affecting undocumented family members and neighbors, citizens and residents working to resettle family members, and those whose legal status has just been revoked. 

For schools, research and experience tell us what will happen next: Students who are undocumented or in families with mixed legal status will and fall behind; families will no longer participate in school events; and they may limit or stop communicating with teachers and schools altogether. 

Akin to pandemic-related school closures and disruptions, many school districts with immigration populations – both in border states and – will once again face disruption and crises to manage this. Educational leaders and K-12 educators are on as they consider to immediate threats of enforcement and the ongoing, wide-ranging effects of mobilizing fear. Furthermore, those supporting immigrant communities are now to comply with enforcement actions they may oppose. 

With the scope and speed of immigration changes underway, educational leaders can assume that the impact and ripple effects of federal (and some state) actions will broadly impact their school community as a whole. 

First, we know from research that heightened enforcement affects students’ and families’ sense of safety and belonging at school: a chilling effect on the school climate can lead to , deep-set fears, andthat may reverberate throughout a classroom, even . may also decline after an immigration raid. 

Second, immigration enforcement tests students’ and families’ trusting relationships with educators, for educators to know, assess, and respond to student and school community needs if schools are deemed unsafe. Even elementary-aged students may choose silence and avoid activities that disclose . This can undo work that district and school leaders have done across the country to with families.

Third, educators perceive ICE in different ways and with of immigration policies and laws that protect students. Many education leaders are highly committed to their immigrant students, involving personnel in a to support them. Some will already have district support with clear policies in place, while others are now scrambling to find ways to legally respond to .

Given all this, what can school leaders do? We offer the following suggestions:

1. Establish guidelines and train all staff about what to do if there are reports of ICE agents either in the neighborhood or trying to enter school. Several districts in immigrant-serving communities have already established policies that call on all staff – including security, front office staff, and teachers – to if needed. This might include steps to ensure ICE agents do not enter the building or engage with students or staff; district leaders and the legal department are immediately notified; and outreach is made to community partners such as immigrant rights organizations. Some districts have worked with these organizations or with immigration attorneys to offer know-your-rights workshops for staff, families, and in some cases, students, to prepare for enforcement actions. 
2. Anticipate sustained uncertainty by supporting immigrant families and training educators in preparedness planning. Because schools are often trusted sites of care and support for immigrant communities, educators or community liaisons should help families for what happens in case of a raid or detention. If a parent or guardian is detained during school hours, school administrators need additional contacts in place, ready to step up. If these contacts are unavailable or under threat, educational leaders need to rely on relationships with local social services or community-based organizations to navigate next steps. Legal counsel is a crucial part of preparation; identifying local immigration law resources in advance is necessary.
3. Deepen ongoing efforts to create cultures of care amid disruption by addressing issues of safety and belonging now. Just as in the pandemic, educators are responding to crises that may upend business-as-usual and require flexible policies and practices. Educators can affirm their support for immigrant communities and foster strong relationships with families and community-based organizations to mitigate the anticipated chilling effect that increased enforcement will have on school attendance and family engagement. 

Essentially, educational leaders can prepare by focusing on strengthening relationships, identifying local resources, and preparing for ongoing disruptions. Immigrant communities live with uncertainty about the coming weeks and months; so do the educational leaders who support them.

But educators said they are determined to help these students learn, even through this difficult time. Diana Herrera, who teaches in California’s Central Valley but who declined to name her school, vowed to protect her students as if they were her own children. Even with her sensitivity to their plight, she said, attendance has dropped — including among those born in the United States. 

“They are concerned for their family members,” Herrera said, through tears, adding her school has not given teachers any directives on how to address or quell their concerns. “If I can’t give them the right answer or if I can’t make them feel better, they are not going to continue coming.” 

Trump recently removed barriers that once kept immigration agents away from . Conservative forces — who have urged undocumented residents to consider — have also, , been strategizing to undo , the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status. 

Amid these challenges, Cheruba Chavez, who is an English language and special education teacher in New Orleans, pledged to keep her students safe and engaged: Those who miss school will get follow-up calls encouraging them to return, and those who transfer will receive all the help they need to avoid gaps in their learning.

“They are coming to school for something that no one can take away from them: an education,” she said. 

Despite the anxiety around immigration and deportation, Hector Villagra, vice president of policy advocacy and community education at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he believes campus raids are unlikely. 

But he said staff members should understand their legal obligation: Villagra, an attorney, said schools typically do not have to honor what he called “administrative warrants” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Most are mere forms issued through the Department of Homeland Security or ICE and are not judicial warrants signed by a judge or magistrate, he said. 

“These documents do not give ICE agents any authority to enter school premises without permission,” he said. 

Dan McNeil, general counsel for the American Federation of Teachers, echoed his remarks at the teachers union’s virtual town hall Thursday night. He said ICE agents on campus should be referred to the school’s administration. As for teachers, they can remain mum. “You have the right to remain silent,” he said. “You should not disclose the immigration status of your student — or even let them know if a student that they ask about is on campus.” 

ICE did not immediately respond to questions about its authority. 

Alejandra Vazquez Baur, cofounder of the National Newcomers Network, said attorneys, not front office workers, should be the ones to decipher which warrants must be acted upon.

She added that Trump’s tactics, which she characterized as “an attack” on immigrant families, are designed to make them believe they do not belong in public spaces. “Families fear to send their kids to school,” she said. “This is about exclusion, racism and power. The cruelty is the point.”

But Vazquez Baur added that immigrant advocates are using this moment to organize, unite, share ideas and push back, when possible, against the president’s directives. 

Even so, tensions remain high on the ground and some schools are cancelling in-person events for parents who are worried about coming to campus, said Nancy Rosas, senior director of schools for the Internationals Network. “Overall that fear makes people behave like they want to hide in the shadows,” she said. 

Viri Carrizales, president of ImmSchools, founded in 2018 to support educators in creating a welcoming environment for immigrant students, said the consternation around immigration has left some educators worried about addressing the matter head on. 

Carrizales, who was undocumented in her K-12 and college journey, said some school staff are prohibiting the distribution of “know-your-rights” cards to students for fear of drawing attention to their schools: She said, too, their silence on these critical issues makes immigrant families feel unsupported. Some are withdrawing their children entirely. 

����Ӱ�� also reached out to multilingual learner teachers on Facebook. While some said attendance held steady, others, like Tammy Ingraham Baggett, who teaches multilingual learners in Harris County, Texas, said numbers declined noticeably in the past week.

She said two students told her they were going to miss school because of possible immigration raids: One child, whose mother was concerned for her safety at school, asked to work on her assignments at home for the rest of the week because of ICE. 

“Is your mom scared?” Ingraham Baggett recalled asking the ninth grader. “She said emphatically, ‘Yes.’ I asked if she was scared. She shrugged, eyes downcast, and nodded yes.”

Ariel Taylor Smith, senior director of the National Parents Union Policy & Action Center, whose organization has taken a strong stance in favor of immigrant communities, said she is worried about students in Republican states and about those living in the suburbs or in rural areas. 

“I think a lot of our kids in our urban cities are in districts that have the infrastructure to provide regular communication with parents in multiple languages,” she said. “That’s muscle they’ve already built — and it’s one everyone should have.”

Some suburban and rural districts might not have that same capacity, she said.

From strategic defiance to more open compliance, school districts across the country are gearing up in very different ways for how to respond if — or when — immigration agents arrive on campus. 

Their deliberations are occurring as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and as President Donald J. Trump’s new administration placing schools, hospitals and churches off-limits to such enforcement actions. 

Sonja H. Trainor, executive director of the National School Attorneys Association, told ����Ӱ�� on Monday that her members are already reporting a significant decrease in student attendance — and tremendous concern among parents about Trump’s latest orders.  

And while many education leaders have pledged to keep ICE at bay — Georgia’s Gwinnett County Public Schools instructed staff to make a copy of agents’ identification cards and to “not offer any information” — others are advising greater degrees of cooperation. One extreme outlier: Oklahoma’s Republican state Superintendent Ryan Walters, who said he welcomes . 

“Schools haven’t been working with law enforcement on this,” he . “However President Trump decides to carry out the actions around his immigration policy, we are going to absolutely work with him on that.”

Trainor said her organization will be offering their members information and support on how they can counsel districts in responding to ICE, including a webinar presented by an immigration attorney, in the coming weeks.

Most school protocols for visits from law enforcement agencies, including immigration agents, she said, call for a school official to greet the officer; ask for credentials and any order, subpoena, or warrant; and to get a specific administrator to interact with them.

“The administrator may also want to consult legal counsel based on the circumstances,” she said. “Each scenario may be fact specific and require schools to be neutral and objective looking at state/federal law for release of student information.”

The United States is home to some and as of 2018, roughly lived with at least one family member, often a parent, who was undocumented, according to the American Immigration Council.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told ABC’s “This Week” that he’s willing to execute raids in K-12 schools, saying it will help solve another problem:  

“How many MS-13 members are the age 14 to 17? Many of them,” Homan said Sunday, referring to a  

Longtime Oklahoma science teacher Jenny Bobo said students and families in her school community are filled with dread. 

“People are terrified,” she told ����Ӱ��. “We, as educators, fear for our students. We are terrified that, in order to advance political careers, entire buildings full of children will be traumatized.”

in Oklahoma have already begun, as students and adults plead to keep families together.

Bobo’s 14-year-old son, Preston Lee Bobo, was among a group of protestors who attended the state Board of Education meeting Tuesday morning in Oklahoma City. The board Walters’ proposal requiring that families provide information on their immigration or citizenship status when enrolling their kids. The move is seen as possibly violating Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status, and could potentially create a trove of data making undocumented students in Oklahoma more vulnerable to ICE enforcement.

Preston said he wanted to call attention to what he believes is unfair treatment of undocumented children. The teen was not permitted to speak as the public comments portion of these events has been greatly curtailed: . If given the chance, Preston said he was ready to be heard.

“I think that they should be treated like any other student,” the teen said of his undocumented peers. “Agents coming in and looking for undocumented children is inappropriate. If they find them, then they will presumably try to get them deported and I don’t support that. I also don’t really want a bunch of cops in my school. We already have SROs (school resource officers).”

John Seidlitz, a long-time educator, immigrant advocate and founder of the California-based Seidlitz Education, said he’s concerned about the stress raids could place on children. 

“As educators, we have spent years learning about the effects of trauma on educational outcomes,” he said. “The threat of ICE presence in schools will have a serious negative impact not only on undocumented students, but on all students attending public schools.” 

about ICE agents on or near school grounds continue to spread through social media. But it’s unclear whether immigration agents will actually come to campus. Some school officials have been told their districts are not targets.  

Christopher Cram, a spokesperson for Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, said the school system was led to believe through a virtual call on Friday with immigration officials that campuses are still safe. 

“Despite the Department of Homeland Security’s recent statement that ICE agents no longer have to ‘honor’ the ‘sensitive locations’ guidance, recent comments by ICE officials to Maryland superintendents indicate that there are no plans to visit or take action near schools,” he said. 

But the atmosphere remains tense. The Chicago Public Schools reported last week that ICE agents visited one of its campuses only to later realize this : It was the Secret Service on an unrelated matter. But immigration raids were conducted within the past few days and also in among a host of other early locations, including the area and  

people in Arizona and New Mexico were caught up in the sweeps. Citing a senior Trump official, Tuesday that immigration authorities made close to 1,200 arrests in just one day, roughly 245 more than initially claimed. Nearly half of those detained don’t have criminal records, it reported, which Trump had said .

In an effort to prepare for any outcome, and local education agencies have provided school personnel — and, in some cases, parents — varying directives. Many reflect the fine line between protecting students’ rights and violating federal law. 

• The state superintendent of schools in Maryland said in a memo that “school personnel should not argue or debate with immigration enforcement officials but should direct them to the local superintendent or designated administrator for further action.”

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina said its administrators must, when told by agents they want to speak to a particular child, attempt to contact their parents and remain with the student during a law enforcement interview. The directive said they “should not interfere with any ICE enforcement action, which may include service or execution of warrants, interviews, searches, or arrests,” but that students have a right against self-incrimination and may not be required to provide information that would establish residency status.

• Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia provided staff with a script, advising them to welcome the agents and say, “We will cooperate within the boundaries of the law, but to ensure minimal disruption, please have a seat until the principal arrives.” They’re further instructed to make copies of any warrants, not allow agents access beyond the vestibule until their identity is confirmed and to document the agent’s name, badge number, agency affiliation, time, date, and details of the request.

• The School District of Philadelphia asked parents Friday to make sure that all emergency contact information is updated for their children.  

• Chicago Public Schools , in English and Spanish, to support immigrant students and their families, saying at a press conference last week: “Regardless of this policy change, our protocols will remain in place. There is complete alignment here between our state, our city and our district … CPS does not ask for a family’s immigration status. CPS will not coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. CPS does not share student records with ICE except in the rare case where there’s a court order or consent from a parent or guardian.”

• Orange County Public Schools in Florida was advised by one of its attorneys to contact students’ parents whenever possible to ask for their permission for an ICE agent to interview their child. But, it notes, that if an administrator informs the parent of an interview after being told not to by law enforcement, refuses to leave the room when directed or interferes with a student’s arrest, they “may be subject to arrest on charges of tampering with a law enforcement investigation or obstructing a law enforcement official.”

• Clark County School District in Las Vegas told staff that if there is a concern with the identity of the officer or agent — or the reason for their visit — they should call the Clark County School District Police Department. 

A federal judge in Washington state today President Donald J. Trump’s three-day-old executive order to end birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, called the order .” He agreed with the four state plaintiffs that it would cause irreparable harm to those denied their right to citizenship, subjected to the risk of deportation and family separation and deprived of federally funded medical care and public benefits that “prevent child poverty and promote child health,” also impacting their education. A separate federal lawsuit is pending in Massachusetts.

— plus San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — and several civil rights groups are suing to block President Donald J. Trump’s move to undo birthright citizenship through executive order, a constitutional challenge education leaders say could transform public schools. 

Trump, who rode a to a second term, argues that to any child whose mother is unlawfully present in the United States or lawfully present on a temporary basis — such as foreign students — and whose father is neither a citizen nor a lawful permanent resident. 

The move garnered immediate backlash: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868. It states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” 

“If you lose the protections of birthright citizenship and is overturned or somehow ignored, then I think a lot of families would withdraw their children from school out of fear of deportation,” said immigration advocate and policy expert Timothy Boals, referring to the 1982 Supreme Court case which forbids schools from denying enrollment based on a child’s or their parents’ immigration status. 

Conservative forces aligned with the Trump administration have been strategizing an end to Plyler . That potential threat is now being amplified with the affront on birthright citizenship and Tuesday’s announcement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are now free to , churches and other once-protected areas. The president has already pledged and a return to .

“What that means is more children are denied an education and that’s not good for our society if they end up staying,” said Boals, “and it’s certainly not good for the students wherever they end up going.”

Speaking specifically about the ICE enforcement change, Laura Gardner, who founded Immigrant Connections, a consulting group that works with educators, said the policy will create “intense fear” and could negatively impact student attendance and family engagement. It will also be difficult for teachers, whom she said can’t do their job when children aren’t in school. 

“As educators, we always remind students and families that schools are a safe space and now we can’t really guarantee that,” she told ����Ӱ��. “Ultimately, all this is going to do is hurt innocent children.”

About lived with an unauthorized immigrant parent in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. About 250,000 babies were born to unauthorized immigrant parents in the United States in 2016, the latest year for which information is available, according to . This represents a 36% decrease from a peak of about 390,000 in 2007.

The president also seeks to prohibit government agencies from issuing documents recognizing an infant’s citizenship if born under the circumstances he outlined — or from accepting documents issued by state, local or other authorities acknowledging their citizenship. 

The controversial order could go into effect Feb. 19, leaving children born on U.S. soil to non-citizen parents, from that date on, without any legal status. “They will all be deportable and many will be stateless,” according to . 

It said Trump has no right to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment, “Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth.”

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups fighting the move, called it a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values.

“Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is,” he said. “This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans.”

Romero’s remarks harken back to one of the Supreme Court’s most reviled rulings: . In that 1857 case, the court ruled that enslaved people, including Dred Scott, were not citizens of the United States and, as a result, could not expect any protection from the federal government or courts, according to the . 

The ruling, which pushed the nation toward civil war, was essentially undone by the 13th and 14th amendments. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James lambasted Trump for trying to reverse what has been a hallmark of the nation for more than 150 years.

“This executive order is nothing but an attempt to sow division and fear, but we are prepared to fight back with the full force of the law to uphold the integrity of our Constitution,” she said. “As Attorney General, I will always protect the legal rights of immigrants and their families and communities.”

If Trump’s order is implemented, the U.S. would join other nations that do not allow birthright citizenship — or greatly restrict such protections — including and Australia. 

As of 2022, reported that unauthorized immigrants represented 3.3% of the total U.S. population and 23% of the foreign-born population: Immigrants as a whole comprised 14.3% of the nation’s population that year, below the record high of 14.8% reached in 1890.

At an inaugural prayer service Tuesday, an Episcopal bishop made to reconsider his views on immigrants and their kids. 

“… they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors,” the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde said. “… I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away …”

The next day Trumpand described Edgar Budde as a “so-called Bishop” and a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who was not compelling or smart.

The student population has not only , but the district saw an unprecedented influx of English learners. 

“It’s a huge testament to the work being done in Tulsa,” he said at a state board meeting. “I think that you’re seeing parents that have confidence in what’s being done there.”

But now he wants parents in Tulsa and other districts throughout the state to share their citizenship status when they enroll their children — a proposal that not only violates but is likely to keep some parents from sending their children to school. 

Districts say they don’t know how many undocumented students they have, but In Tulsa, the population of English learners grew from 10,168 in 2023 to 11,149 last year. 

President-elect Donald Trump’s are celebrating Walters’ effort to end “sanctuary schools,” but district leaders say the plan is traumatizing vulnerable families.

“It’s hurtful, and it’s going to create fear,” said Nick Migliorino, superintendent of the Norman Public Schools, south of Oklahoma City. “Not educating kids because of the status of their parents helps nobody.” 

The Oklahoma State Department of Education says the is needed to determine how many tutors and teachers districts need for English learners. But it comes as many national Republicans are eager to challenge a longstanding Supreme Court ruling, , which  guarantees undocumented students an education in the U.S. 

“It’s reasonable to presume that this is an attack on Plyler,” said Julie Sugarman, associate director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration at the Migration Policy Institute. “If the Supreme Court was to say, ‘Well, we changed our mind — you actually can ask about immigration status,’ that would really put all of Plyler into question.” 

The public has until Jan. 17 to submit comments on the rule. The state Board of Education will hold a public hearing the same day. 

The plan follows an election in which President-elect Donald Trump referred to the U.S. as a for undocumented immigrants. He has called for on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at schools on the day he takes office and said he would — even if their children were born in the U.S.

Walters foreshadowed the new rule in July when he asked districts to account for the “cost and burden” of illegal immigration. And on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Deputy Director Peter Flores for $474 million, saying their “failed border policies” have placed “severe financial and operational strain” on Oklahoma’s schools. He a bill for the same figure in October. 

The state, which has an under 16, will need an additional 1,065 teachers for English learners over the next five years, he wrote in his letter to Harris. He offered no specifics on where he got that figure. 

“We cannot effectively budget or allocate critical resources when we have no accounting of the cost that illegal immigration places on our schools,” the letter said.

shows that the percentage of English learners in the state, about 10%, hasn’t increased since the 2021-22 school year. But teachers in Tulsa have definitely noticed the influx of newcomers. 

“Some of them just show up on Monday and they don’t speak any English,” said one teacher in the district who did not want to be named in order to protect students. She often communicates with students through bilingual staff members. “I just hear the saddest stories every day. The kids are really sweet, but they’re afraid.”  

She worries about what might happen if recent immigrants are unable to attend school. 

“We provide coats,” she said. “We provide groceries on the weekends.”

‘Will not comply’

Norman, where about 8% of students are English learners, was among the many districts that didn’t submit any data to the state last summer. Regardless of their needs, Migliorino said, “educators invest in the students who show up in our district.”

Leaders of other districts, including the , and the , pushed back on Walters’ demands, saying they haven’t  asked about families’ immigration status and don’t intend to start. 

Bixby Superintendent told ����Ӱ�� the proposed rule was “clearly unconstitutional.” 

“Bixby will not comply,” said Miller, an outspoken critic of Walters who is suing him for .

He compared Walters’ plan to the state’s legal battle over a first-in-the-nation religious charter school. While the Oklahoma Supreme Court said the Catholic charter violates the law, the school and the state’s charter board have appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has not yet decided whether to hear the case. 

“I believe they are trying to create a case for the Trump Supreme Court,” he said.

In , a Texas school district sought to charge tuition to students not “legally admitted” to the country. The U.S. Department of Education has long interpreted the court’s opinion to mean that states “cannot do anything to chill the atmosphere or to make people feel afraid to send their kids to school,” Sugarman said. 

Oklahoma isn’t the first state to attempt to curb illegal immigration’s impact on schools. In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants access to public education and other services. The measure directed teachers to report students they suspected were undocumented to authorities. But advocates and federal courts found it .

Since then, , Arizona, Maryland and Texas have sought to ask parents about their citizenship, all for the stated purpose of determining how much it costs to serve unauthorized students. Only Alabama’s law was enacted, but a federal appeals court in 2012, after only a year. 

The issue could prove appealing for the Supreme Court, which took a sharp right turn during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. That ideological shift resulted in the end of and the reversal of that gave federal agencies significant leeway to interpret the law. 

“We have a different court now,” said Sugarman of the Migration Policy Institute. “The court’s willingness to overturn legal precedent means that lots of things are on the table that we wouldn’t previously [have] thought were in play.”

Attorney general agreement

The education department has until March to submit the rule to the legislature, where both the House and Senate must approve the measure for it to pass. If they don’t take action, the package automatically goes to the governor to sign. 

Walters, who frequently clashes with Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on issues like religion in public schools and education funding, has found common cause with his frequent opponent on the issue of seeking parents’ citizenship status. 

“The Attorney General has said he believes Oklahoma has the right to collect citizenship data in connection with government services,” said spokesman Phil Bacharach.

In a , Drummond, who announced his Monday, spoke about efforts to cooperate with the incoming Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants who are committing crimes in the state. But he didn’t address education.

As “protected areas or sensitive locations,” schools have been off limits for ICE agents at least . Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said she wasn’t aware of any past ICE raids at U.S. schools. But that enrollment of Hispanic students in school drops, especially in the elementary grades, when ICE and local law enforcement partner to enforce immigration laws. Following a raid at a Tennessee meatpacking plant in 2019, in the local district were absent. 

For now, some districts have tried to reassure parents who might be hesitant to enroll their children or send them to school. Oklahoma City Superintendent Jamie Polk issued a statement saying the district’s schools “are a safe and welcoming place for all students, and our mission remains unchanged.”

But the state’s recommended rule is especially controversial in Tulsa, where conservative Board Member E’Lena Ashley told a Republican group that many English learners are undocumented and could pose a safety risk to other students.

Superintendent Ebony Johnson has tried to put families at ease, saying that rulemaking is a long, drawn-out process.

“There is a place for you and your children here,” Johnson said in a . “We want students here at school every day.”