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Local education leaders are expressing support for immigrant students and their families as the Trump administration takes steps to sharply crack down on immigration and has threatened mass deportations.
The Santa Clara County Office of Education released a statement yesterday affirming “its commitment to protecting students and families regardless of their citizenship status” and publicized a letter signed by 17 local school officials to the same effect.
“Immigrant families, including those seeking asylum, contribute to the fabric of our country and schools play a significant role in helping immigrant students adapt and thrive,” the letter, dated Jan. 14, states. “We write today to reaffirm our commitment to protecting immigrant students and families and ensuring they feel safe, welcome, and supported at school.”
Mountain View Los Altos High School District Superintendent Eric Volta and Los Altos School District Superintendent Sandra McGonagle are among the signers of the letter.
The letter notes that under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, children have a right to a public education, regardless of immigration status.
The letter goes on to outline steps that school districts plan to take to avoid cooperating with immigration enforcement activities. These include not allowing immigration agents on school campuses unless they have a signed judicial warrant or can demonstrate what’s known as “exigent circumstances,” which is a legal term referring to certain urgent situations.
The school districts who signed the letter also plan to work with their lawyers to avoid disclosing student information to immigration officials, unless there’s a judicial warrant.
These steps are in line with guidance that California Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued for school districts.
Volta told the Voice that he decided to sign the county’s letter because it was in accordance with MVLA’s existing board policy and administrative regulation that the district’s school board passed back in 2018. Volta said that he has met with district and school-level administrators to review what steps should be taken if an immigration officer came to campus.
Asked what concerns he had around a potential ramp up in immigration enforcement, Volta pointed to the potential impact on students who would be attending school “under this din of what will happen next.”
“My biggest concern is for students and their wellbeing, their emotional wellbeing,” Volta said.
During the last Trump administration, Mountain View High lost at least three students due to deportation, which occurred off-campus. School officials said at the time that they had never witnessed student deportations before.
Within the first few days in office this year, the Trump administration has taken various actions aimed at dramatically expanding federal immigration enforcement. Among them, the Justice Department has instructed federal prosecutors to investigate – and potentially criminally charge – local officials who try to obstruct federal immigration efforts. The Department of Homeland Security also rescinded a Biden administration policy, which prevented immigration agents from entering schools and other “sensitive locations” to make arrests.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” an unnamed spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release.
Asked about these actions, Volta said that the idea that people were hiding on school grounds to avoid detention was “ridiculous.”
“Nobody comes into our schools unless they sign in, and it’s only to visit,” Volta said. “We don’t have a safe house on our school sites.”
He added that, given the focus appeared to be on apprehending adults who have committed crimes, he didn’t see how schools would come into play.
While Volta has instructed MVLA staff to follow district policies and state guidelines, including asking for a warrant or explanation of what exigent circumstances exist, he noted that he would not ask an employee to put themselves between an officer and their school’s campus.
“I’m not going to put any employee in harm’s way,” Volta said. “That’s not an ask I can make.”
This also follows Bonta’s guidance, which states that school employees should not consent to an immigration officer accessing campus without a judicial warrant or exigent circumstances, but also should not “physically impede an officer.” Instead, they should document their actions while on campus, the guidance states.
While MVLA and LASD both signed onto the county’s letter, the Mountain View Whisman School District was not among its signers. However, MVWSD spokesperson Shelly Hausman said that this was because the district didn’t know about the letter, which she said was “likely just an oversight.” According to Hausman, the district would have liked to have been a part of it.
Similar to the districts who signed the letter, Hausman said that MVWSD wouldn’t allow an immigration enforcement officer on campus except “under very specific circumstances” in which there was a legal requirement, such as a judicial warrant.
The school board plans to consider approving a resolution to “codify (the district’s) support of all families and students regardless of race, immigration status, ethnicity or citizenship” at a Jan. 30 meeting, Hausman said. She added that it would be similar to a resolution passed in 2017.
“We will reinforce our commitment to all students and families in the hopes of reducing some of the anxiety people are feeling,” Hausman said.
Thank you for covering this important issue!