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On Chicago’s north aspect, a Spanish-speaking instructor persuaded a nervous migrant mom, who had stopped sending her son to high school due to concern of the Trump administration’s immigration raids, to let him come again.
In Brighton Park, a majority Latino neighborhood on the town’s southwest aspect, an elementary faculty principal has been sharing his expertise as an immigrant, in order that households really feel extra snug.
In Pilsen, a predominantly Latino neighborhood and traditionally a neighborhood the place Mexican households have immigrated to, a highschool launched an emergency immigration chat and informed mother and father that it’s OK for college students with immigration issues to remain house.
As a part of a vow to crack down on unlawful immigration, President Donald Trump in his first week in workplace canceled a earlier coverage to maintain ICE brokers away from “delicate areas,” akin to colleges and church buildings. Federal brokers have stepped up “focused immigration enforcement” in Chicago, arresting at the least 100 folks within the metropolis and surrounding suburbs, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling informed reporters Tuesday.
Throughout a Chicago Board of Schooling assembly Thursday, Chicago Public Colleges CEO Pedro Martinez urged mother and father to ship their kids to high school “to allow them to obtain the training they deserve.”
“Faculty is the place each youngster in our metropolis belongs no matter their immigration standing, and we’ll do every thing in our energy to guard them whereas they’re in our care,” Martinez stated.
CPS colleges, which have acquired 1000’s of migrant college students lately, are coaching employees and households on their rights and grappling with easy methods to persuade their communities that colleges are protected. The Chicago Academics Union has known as on the district, which has educated principals, to coach extra employees; CPS stated it’s “exploring further choices for offering instructor coaching.”
These efforts had been put to the check on Friday, when employees at Hamline Elementary Faculty within the Again of the Yards neighborhood falsely reported turning away Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers, sparking concern amongst already anxious employees and college students. The district later confirmed that the brokers had been U.S. Secret Service investigating a risk, however advocates stated the college’s response was proof that employees was educated properly.
“That is the primary time that I had heard of the protocol working after the delicate areas memo was pulled, and that’s actually vital proof for us advocates — [and] even mother and father — to see this might work,” stated Alejandra Vázquez Baur, who leads the Nationwide Newcomer Community, a bunch of educators, advocates, and researchers who deal with fairness for newcomer immigrant college students.
Instructor allays fears of migrant mother
Nathy, who got here to the USA in 2023 from Venezuela to flee political persecution, stored her son out of his elementary faculty final week, regardless that the college informed households that it’s protected. She additionally stayed house from her job at a nail salon.
Chalkbeat is simply utilizing Nathy’s first identify to guard her privateness.
Nathy and her household have Momentary Protected Standing, which permits her to stay and work within the U.S. Such a standing was prolonged to October 2026 by former President Joe Biden’s administration shortly earlier than he left workplace. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, the Trump administration revoked the extension, making it unclear how lengthy folks like Nathy can stay legally within the U.S., the New York Instances reported. Nathy had utilized for asylum, which offers a path to citizenship, however her request was denied throughout an immigration courtroom listening to in December, she stated.
Now, Nathy is petrified of being despatched again to Venezuela, which the Biden administration labeled as experiencing a “extreme humanitarian disaster.” She, her two sons — certainly one of whom is now not in class — and her brother stayed inside their residence final week, she stated.
Her youthful son, nonetheless, needed to return to high school and “was very careworn locked up at house,” she stated in Spanish by way of textual content message.
After her son was absent for just a few days, one of many faculty’s Spanish-speaking lecturers reached out to Nathy to steer her to ship him to high school.
“He despatched me an e mail with the rights we have now and the way they defend kids in school,” she stated.
On Tuesday, Nathy took her son again to class and in addition returned to work. She couldn’t afford to overlook out on extra pay, she stated.
Her son is glad to be again, however Nathy remains to be nervous, she stated.
“Earlier than I felt calm,” she stated by textual content. “Now it’s a nightmare to stay right here. ”
Elementary principal pertains to immigrant households
At Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park, the place practically half of the scholars had been English language learners final 12 months, the principal has distinctive credibility with households: He struggled for many years together with his personal immigration standing.
Principal Marlon Henriquez stated he and his mom had been undocumented once they left El Salvador in 1996 to hitch Henriquez’s father in the USA. In 2001, they and different Salvadorian nationals had been granted Momentary Protected Standing and authorization to work within the U.S. after devastating earthquakes in El Salvador, he stated. Awaiting his work authorization renewal through the years all the time made Henriquez anxious, he stated.
“As soon as that date was up, it was attainable I’d not be capable of work,” Henriquez stated.
Final Could, Henriquez was granted a inexperienced card — authorized everlasting residency — after a long time in the USA. He’s been sharing his story in current weeks with faculty households to allow them to know: “I’m with them, I help them, and I perceive how troublesome this may be.”
Gunsaulus has shared info, similar to different colleges, about what the college will do within the occasion ICE reveals up, together with turning immigration brokers away except they’ve a legal judicial warrant signed by a federal choose. He’s additionally requested households to create an emergency plan for his or her kids in case their mother and father or guardians are detained by ICE.
“That helped our households perceive: We do not need to enter panic mode, however we have now to be proactive,” he stated.
Pilsen highschool principal says it’s OK to remain house
On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the principal of Benito Juarez Excessive Faculty, the place 46% of scholars had been English learners final 12 months, alerted households about potential deportation plans in Chicago. It’s OK, he stated, to remain house.
“Please know that whereas our college is protected and that our college students can be protected whereas they’re in class, I additionally perceive that there’s a lot of concern and nervousness amongst our households,” Juan Carlos Ocon, the principal, wrote in a message on Jan. 19 obtained by Chalkbeat. “I’ll help your determination to ship your college students to high school and I’ll help your determination to not ship your kids to high school in the event you consider they’re safer if they continue to be house.”
In a follow-up e mail the subsequent day, Ocon informed mother and father that every one homework and initiatives can be obtainable by way of Google Classroom. He connected a PowerPoint informing households of their rights and urged them to supply emergency contact info and create a telephone tree “in case you have got an encounter with ICE.”
Aimee Galban, a guardian of a freshman at Juarez, stated the emergency chat created by the college contains an alderman and permits households to debate and confirm issues akin to sightings of federal immigration enforcement.
“I feel open conversations and communication is all that we have now, as a result of we will’t continually stay in concern,” Galban stated.
CEO Martinez, who’s an alumnus of Juarez, beforehand informed Chalkbeat that the district gained’t be implementing distant studying. CPS has despatched a number of emails to households concerning the district’s insurance policies on immigration, together with reiterating that it doesn’t acquire immigration info and can flip ICE away from colleges in most cases.
A CPS spokesperson stated Juarez will not be offering distant instruction, and it’s regular to make use of Google Classroom to publish assignments. Colleges “collaborate with college students individually” to handle the explanations for his or her absences.
Juarez employees acquired a “Know Your Rights” coaching final Tuesday — knowledgeable improvement day for lecturers — about protections for immigrants and what to do if approached by immigration enforcement. Later that week, all Juarez college students received an identical coaching, stated Jonah Bondurant, a Juarez instructor who works with college students with disabilities.
However there have been indicators of concern on the faculty when college students had been first again after an extended weekend and Trump’s inauguration, he stated. Attendance was slightly below 60% that Wednesday, and rose to only underneath 75% later within the week, Bondurant stated. Different components for low attendance may have been final week’s frigid temperatures and that it was a brief week.
Youngsters who did present up displayed blended feelings and totally different ranges of understanding of immigration rights and fears, Bondurant stated. Seniors, who would possibly recall elevated immigration fears throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace, appeared extra conscious of the difficulty, he stated.
“Some persons are afraid. Some persons are utilizing humor, I’d say, to sort of, you understand, cope,” Bondurant stated. “However they had been very attentive to, you understand, taking within the details about their rights.”
Constitution community tries to alleviate stress for college students
On the Noble constitution faculty community, which operates a handful of faculties with bigger immigrant populations, principals and employees had been supplied with info on what to do if ICE reveals up at their faculty doorways.
Aidé Acosta, chief school officer for Noble, stated some colleges heard fears from college students final week, which coincided with finals. As a part of her function, Acosta works on scholarships for undocumented college students and helps lead the community’s response to immigration issues.
Faculty leaders determined they would offer lodging for the exams for college students coping with immigration issues “on a case by case foundation,” Acosta stated, who didn’t elaborate on what these lodging had been.
Acosta stated she can be making an attempt to fight misinformation, together with false studies of immigration enforcement. The incident at Hamline — which Acosta believes was dealt with properly by the Hamline employees — inadvertently induced folks to unfold extra misinformation and concern, she stated.
Faculty leaders’ work “contains making certain we’re sharing dependable info as a result of our households and communities are in loads of ache at this second,” Acosta stated.
Neighborhood group helps households, college students
False or unverified studies of ICE exhibiting up and misinformation on-line could make every day really feel like a sport of “Whack-A-Mole,” stated Andrea Ortiz, director of organizing at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which offers wraparound providers at Gunsaulus.
Ortiz stated her group has been offering Know Your Rights coaching for college students at excessive colleges they associate with on the Southwest Facet. College students usually ask questions solely attorneys can reply, she stated, akin to what dangers do folks with Momentary Protected Standing face. She shares web sites and telephone numbers at no cost or low-cost attorneys.
She stated she desires college students to “really feel ready and assured in exercising these rights.”
Ortiz stated the group’s clinicians, who work with colleges immediately, are additionally holding help teams for households. She recounted a narrative from a guardian at certainly one of their associate elementary colleges who shared that one morning, whereas getting her kids prepared for varsity, they heard a knock on the door and feared it was immigration enforcement. It ended up being the sheriff’s workplace knocking on a door on the ground under, however the second “was actually triggering for them” and scared the youngsters, Ortiz stated.
Brighton Park’s clinicians jumped in, providing further help to the mom, and the group shared info on what to do if ICE did come to their door, Ortiz stated.
Correction 1/30/2025: A earlier model of this story incorrectly described Principal Marlon Henriquez’s journey to the USA. Henriquez got here to the USA in 1996 and later acquired Momentary Protected Standing in 2001.
Reema Amin is a reporter protecting Chicago Public Colleges. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
Samantha Smylie is the state training reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago protecting faculty districts throughout the state, laws, particular training and the state board of training. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.