MCPS recently provided reference sheets for staff with instructions for if ICE enters school property.
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is a federal law enforcement agency founded in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. ICE is responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration policies, but has been garnering international attention in recent months for the controversial detainment of thousands of undocumented immigrants, including a student from Blair High School last year.
In most cases, ICE avoids entering schools to arrest students. This means any student would likely be detained outside school grounds, in which case, school officials can do nothing to interfere. Administrators have been trained to watch for ICE officers in areas surrounding the school.
Although ICE has not tried to detain students on school grounds, incidents in the surrounding area have raised concerns. Middle schoolers in Silver Spring witnessed two men being chased and arrested during drop-off this past September. According to the United States Census Bureau, 33.4% of residents in Montgomery County are originally from countries outside of the United States.
“Building authentic relationships with students and families is key,” Principal Nicole Morgan said in a statement to the Pitch. “We understand the importance of maintaining trust while also adhering to district policies designed to keep all students safe.”
If ICE officers do enter school grounds, administrators will be the first point of contact. According to the Maryland Values Act, ICE officers aren’t allowed to access any part of the school “that is not accessible to the general public.”
The first step that WJ faculty will take to ensure student safety is obtaining identification from officers. School officials are instructed to obtain officers’ identification, which will benefit the defendant in a potential future trial regarding their immigration status. They will then reach out to the MCPS legal counsel and explain the situation.
“In private zones like schools and MCPS buildings, ICE needs a warrant to enforce deportation activity,” Robyn Seabrook, chief of legal services for MCPS, said. “We don’t expect MCPS administrators to know what a warrant looks like, so they are to collect the warrant and contact us.”
Second, administrators will reach out to the affected family and connect them to legal authorities.
Every MCPS student and staff member has received training on what to do in dangerous situations. If an armed assailant broke in with the intention of hurting students, the course of action is clear. The number one priority in every kind of threat is to protect students’ environment and well-being.
ICE presents a unique issue. ICE officers are agents of the government, so resisting their instructions toes the line between protecting students’ rights and breaking the law. According to the ICE website, officers have the legal right to “briefly detain aliens when they have reasonable suspicion that the aliens are illegally present in the United States.”
“They don’t really have permission to come into the schools. It’s more of a denial of entry, and everyone supports that together,” Spanish teacher Mara Ponce said. “As a teacher, I don’t think that they should be able to come and find minors. Not in a free institution for education.”
MCPS doesn’t collect or share information concerning the immigration status of enrolled students, which means there is no way to know how many undocumented students are in WJ or MCPS as a whole. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, four in seven children in Montgomery County have at least one immigrant parent.
The implication that minors can be removed from their schools and put on trial is a serious issue that remains prevalent in current news. How local officials and school administrators have addressed concerns varies across the country, but at WJ, staff members hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
