Join Chalkbeat Chicago’s free each day publication to maintain up with the most recent schooling information.
Citing a “misunderstanding” and pointing to neighborhood fears, Chicago Public Colleges officers conceded Friday night time that they have been mistaken in reporting that federal immigration brokers had proven up that morning at a predominantly Latino elementary college.
Two federal brokers who got here to Hamline Elementary within the metropolis’s Again of the Yards neighborhood have been in truth U.S. Secret Service brokers, the company and district confirmed.
The worry, confusion, and conflicting accounts could possibly be a preview of what’s to return within the weeks forward at faculties with giant immigrant populations now that longstanding protections are gone.
The second Trump administration has moved swiftly to comply with via on marketing campaign guarantees to crack down on immigration, placing communities on edge and faculty officers on alert.
Earlier this week, the administration cleared the best way for immigration enforcement at or close to faculties, church buildings, and different “delicate” places which were thought-about off-limits for years.
On Friday afternoon, Chicago Public Colleges officers instructed the media that workers on the elementary college had adopted district protocol and blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers from coming into the varsity at about 11:15 a.m. CPS chief schooling officer Bogdana Chkoumbova mentioned college workers contacted CPS’s authorized and safety departments and didn’t enable the brokers to talk to college students or workers.
District coverage is to not enable ICE into faculties until brokers current a felony judicial warrant signed by a federal choose.
“We is not going to open our doorways for ICE, and we’re right here to guard our kids and ensure they’ve entry to a superb schooling,” mentioned Natasha Ortega, the varsity principal.
That triggered a sequence of statements that painted a special image of occasions.
Later within the afternoon, an ICE spokesman instructed the Chicago Solar-Occasions the company was not concerned. Then, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that it was Chicago-based Secret Service brokers investigating a risk towards “a authorities official we shield” who went to the varsity after first visiting a residence.
“Brokers recognized themselves to the varsity principal and supplied enterprise playing cards with their contact info,” Guglielmi mentioned. “The brokers left with out incident. The Secret Service investigates all threats made towards these we shield, we don’t examine nor implement immigration legal guidelines.”
On Friday night time, CPS issued an announcement with its revised model of occasions: that two people arrived on the college door and “introduced identification that features the identify Division of Homeland Safety, the federal company that oversees ICE.”
The Secret Service can also be housed underneath the homeland safety division.
CPS mentioned college officers responded to the brokers considering they have been from ICE, “amid rumors and reviews that the company was in the neighborhood,” and acted accordingly.
“Our unique communication was a results of a misunderstanding, reflective of the worry and considerations in the neighborhood amid the brand new administration’s deal with undocumented immigrants,” the district mentioned.
The district mentioned its response “demonstrates that our system, in partnership with neighborhood organizations, is ready and able to hold our college students and workers protected.”
The morning’s occasions despatched ripples of worry via Hamline Elementary, a Okay-8 college that’s 92% Latino and the place greater than 68% of the scholar inhabitants are thought-about English learners, a quantity that grew by 20% over the previous decade.
Because the information unfold via the varsity and the neighborhood, a handful of oldsters and guardians got here to the varsity within the frigid chilly; a few folks seemed to be taking their youngsters out of faculty early for the day.
One Hamline staffer, who requested anonymity, mentioned the varsity went right into a 30-minute lockdown through the incident. CPS officers didn’t instantly verify the lockdown.
Rumors have been swirling all week that Chicago – a so-called sanctuary metropolis – can be the goal of elevated immigration enforcement within the wake of President Donald Trump taking workplace. Trump has already signed a sequence of govt orders aimed toward immigration, together with eliminating the “delicate location” coverage that required ICE to get approval to conduct arrests at or close to faculties and church buildings.
The Trump administration has additionally ordered the U.S. Division of Justice to research and presumably cost native officers who don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement. CPS doesn’t ask for or observe college students’ immigration standing, and late final yr the Board of Schooling authorised a decision reaffirming the district’s intention to guard immigrant college students.
Since final week, CPS has issued steering to highschool workers and households about what to do if ICE brokers come to a campus constructing.
Earlier this week, district CEO Pedro Martinez instructed Chalkbeat that households shouldn’t be afraid to ship their youngsters to highschool. Regardless of the reassurances, unfounded rumors of ICE raids at different Chicago faculties have circulated.
CPS reiterated it is not going to share scholar info with ICE, “besides within the uncommon case the place there’s a court docket order or consent from a father or mother or guardian.”
Exterior Hamline on Friday, Chicago Academics Union President Stacy Davis Gates instructed reporters that the union has been engaged on initiatives and coaching since Trump’s first time period to assist workers learn about their rights associated to immigration.
“Colleges are for youngsters; faculties are open for youngsters,” she mentioned. “We’re gonna work our hardest to guarantee that our kids and their households know that they will come on this place with our members and really feel each supported and guarded – not simply bodily, however emotionally and mentally as properly.”
Gloria Marquez, a lifelong Again of the Yards resident and mom of two Hamline college students, got here to the varsity simply earlier than 1 p.m. after listening to about what was taking place. Marquez declined to take her youngsters out early and mentioned she wasn’t scared of immigration brokers. However she expressed anger on the considered immigration enforcement displaying up, saying that if somebody is “not a felony, then they don’t deserve to return” to their native nation.
Marquez mentioned the worry of elevated immigration enforcement has been palpable within the neighborhood. An area retailer she frequents was far emptier than traditional on Friday. Individuals are not strolling round “like they used to,” she mentioned.
Earlier this week, Marquez mentioned she acquired an e mail from the principal noting that the varsity’s attendance was about 60% on Wednesday and questioned if dad and mom have been hesitant to ship their youngsters to highschool. The lengthy weekend and chilly climate may be components.
Reema Amin is a reporter overlaying Chicago Public Colleges. Contact Reema at [email protected].
