Washington, DC — This administration’s escalating campaign of mass deportation and related violence, fear and chaos, is having a profound and harmful impact on children and schools across America. A powerful story in the Washington Post, “In cities targeted by ICE, empty desks and school disruptions follow,” captures how mass deportation has “traumatized kids, put new burdens on teachers and administrators, and dramatically altered the school year in the communities it has touched.”
The Post article, excerpted below, echoes many of the points raised during an America’s Voice virtual press conference held during the back-to-school season, featuring educators, child psychologists, and immigration experts discussing how mass deportation affects kids and schools (watch a recording of the Back to School virtual event here). As Alberto Carvalho, the Superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) said during the virtual event: “Schools must always be safe havens for learning, free from fear or disruption. Immigration enforcement activities have no place on or around our campuses, as they create an atmosphere of anxiety that harms every student, regardless of background.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, America’s Voice Executive Director:
“This Thanksgiving, as families gather across America, it is unconscionable that many children will be staring at empty chairs at the dinner table, missing their loved ones grabbed by Trump’s mass deportation machine. Children should not have to be processing the trauma of having their schools and neighborhoods invaded by armed and masked enforcement agents. The anti-immigrant campaign has gone too far and America’s children are paying the price. We do not need violence, chaos and fear in order to fix our broken immigration system. We need a plan that works for America – and protects – not harms – all of our children.”
Read key excerpts from the powerful Washington Post story, “In cities targeted by ICE, empty desks and school disruptions follow,” as well as additional resources on the topic of how this administration’s mass deportation agenda is harming kids and schools:
“[I]n interviews with 22 teachers, administrators and school staff members in affected areas from California to Maine, The Post found that federal officers are operating close enough to school campuses to upset students and families, regardless of whether they are citizens.
Teachers tell stories of students who are anxious, depressed and scared that their parents might not come home each day. Administrators have created protocols for what to do if federal officers knock on school doors and poured resources into promoting attendance. Parent volunteers keep watch around schools for ICE officers patrolling nearby.
…Teachers and administrators said it’s not just undocumented families on edge but also children who are citizens but have immigrant parents and families here legally who are concerned about racial or ethnic profiling. Some students from nonimmigrant families are unnerved by the presence of officers in their neighborhoods or worried for their friends at school…”
Additional Resources and Reminders
- Watch the America’s Voice video highlighting the fear in classrooms this school year
- Watch a recording of a Back to School virtual event hosted by America’s Voice on how the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda is harming kids and changing educators’ focus this back-to-school season.
- Read the article in Fox 32 Chicago, “Psychologist warns of lasting trauma from Chicago immigration raids,” and see an earlier study from mental health experts at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine and published in Psychiatric News: “The Special Report, U.S. Immigration Policy and the Mental Health of Children and Families”
