"Undeniable harm": When ICE comes to town, students stay home
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Students protest the arrests of Mauro Henriquez, a fellow student, detained along with his father by ICE in Houston. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Several school systems in areas targeted most aggressively by President Trump's immigration crackdowns have seen dramatic increases in student absences, Axios has found.
Why it matters: Enrollment data in Charlotte, Chicago, Minneapolis, California, Florida and Texas show thousands of students were suddenly absent when ICE came to town — the latest signs of how the raids have rippled through communities.
- The figures also indicate Trump's push to intimidate unauthorized immigrants into leaving communities on their own often has led entire families to depart, even those including youngsters in the U.S. legally.
- "ICE tactics are causing undeniable harm to students — harm that will likely lead to years of trauma in school communities," more than 70 House Democrats wrote in a recent wrote recently to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
The big picture: One day last fall during ICE's operation known as Charlotte's Web, 15% of the students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools stayed home, school officials told WBTV. That's far beyond a typical absentee rate in the district, where nearly one-third of the students are Hispanic.
- In Chicago, where Homeland Security surges coincided with the start of the school year, there was more than 1-percentage point drop in daily attendance compared to the previous two school years, according to an analysis from Chalkbeat. That accounts for roughly 3,200 more students a day, not in school.
- Educators in Minneapolis similarly reported how federal agents' presence led many students to stay home and disrupted operations, such as when the agents pulled over school buses, MPR News reported.
In California's Central Valley, where immigration raids were active but less publicized than urban operations, school absenteeism jumped more than 20% amid ICE and Border Patrol raids early in Trump's second term, a Stanford University study found.
- "The stress that's being put on these young children and their families is serious, and the increased absences are a leading indicator of broader developmental harm," said Thomas S. Dee, author of the Stanford study.
Where ICE has deputized local law enforcement officers to join their mission, student absenteeism also has shown jumps.
- Big declines in school enrollment have been reported in Florida and Texas, which have the nation's highest numbers of enforcement agreements between ICE and local authorities.
What they're saying: "We fear coming to school," high school student Angel Orellana, 17, told the Houston Chronicle in February. "We can't go buy groceries. We don't feel free to be on the street any more, and that's really sad."
- "We should be able to play with our friends and not be detained in prisons like monsters."
The other side: "ICE is not going to schools to arrest children — we are protecting children. Criminals are no longer be able to hide in America's schools to avoid arrest," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
- "The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense."
