What schools can and can't do to stop ICE enforcement
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The Trump administration's reversal of a long-standing policy discouraging immigration enforcement in "sensitive" areas has school officials nationwide prepping for on-campus encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The big picture: It's unclear how or how often ICE will use its new authority to detain students at school, but districts now have to prepare for the possibility, Tara Thomas, government affairs manager for the American Association of School Administrators, told Axios.
- The White House told NBC News it expects enforcement operations on school grounds to be "extremely rare" and that the policy change is not a directive to go into schools, but rather a way to ensure "criminal illegal aliens" cannot use schools to evade arrest.
State of play: Many school boards and districts are rushing to implement policies to spell out how they will interact with ICE agents.
- Phoenix Union High School District last week declared itself a "safe space" from immigration enforcement and said it will not cooperate with ICE requests for student access or information without a judge's order.
- Meanwhile, districts in other states, including some in Florida, say they'll cooperate with ICE.
Reality check: School districts have only so much discretion. There are federal laws that require schools to protect student privacy and others that demand they comply with judicial orders, legal and administrative experts told Axios.
What schools can do: Set policies that outline how staff members should interact with ICE and support students impacted by immigration enforcement.
- These can include limits on officer access to campuses without a judge's permission, plans for communicating with parents about ICE activity, and protocols for how to support students whose parents have been detained, Thomas said.
What schools can't do: Reveal most student information to law enforcement without parental permission or a subpoena signed by a judge.
- The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) forbids schools from sharing information about students — like their addresses, parents' names or class schedules — without permission from the parent.
- FERPA applies to law enforcement unless an officer has secured a judge's order granting them access to the information, National Immigration Law Center legal deputy director Nicholas Espíritu told us.
What schools must do: Comply with orders issued by a judge.
- If an ICE agent produces a judicial warrant allowing them to enter campus or a subpoena for student information, school officials must comply.
- These warrants must be signed by a state or federal judge. They are different from administrative warrants issued by immigration judges or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which school districts do not have to comply with, Espíritu said.
The bottom line: The administration told NBC News it has yet to carry out an enforcement action on a school campus — but the policy change is already putting a strain on school staff.
- "Superintendents are having to brush up on the difference between administrative and judicial warrants when they should be completely focused on educating the next generation," Thomas said.