Schools will not be off limits for immigration enforcement operations underneath a directive introduced by the brand new Trump administration’s Division of Homeland Safety on Tuesday.
The directive ends the observe of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Safety brokers avoiding “delicate” areas — together with elementary and secondary colleges, schools, hospitals and church buildings — for enforcement actions.
The announcement got here on the primary full day of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Trump had promised to implement extra border insurance policies all through his marketing campaign.
Trump and a few Republican supporters have stated undocumented immigrants are overwhelming college programs. Current analysis, nevertheless, has proven that newcomer college students as a substitute deliver fiscal and tutorial advantages to highschool programs.
In a press release on Tuesday, a DHS spokesperson stated the brand new coverage empowers ICE and CBP actions “to implement our immigration legal guidelines and catch legal aliens — together with murders and rapists — who’ve illegally come into our nation.
“Criminals will not have the ability to disguise in America’s colleges and church buildings to keep away from arrest. The Trump Administration is not going to tie the fingers of our courageous legislation enforcement, and as a substitute trusts them to make use of frequent sense.”
Advocates for immigrant and newcomer college students had alerted colleges {that a} new Trump administration may overturn DHS coverage underneath the Biden administration that designated colleges and schools as “protected areas,” that means ICE ought to chorus from conducting enforcement actions “to the fullest extent doable.”
Protected areas additionally included locations the place youngsters, teenagers and younger adults collect, corresponding to playgrounds, recreation facilities, little one care facilities, college bus stops, schools, vocational or commerce colleges, and preschools, elementary and secondary colleges, in line with the earlier DHS coverage.
Though the precise variety of undocumented youngsters and households is unclear, knowledge from the Migration Coverage Institute exhibits about 5.5 million youngsters underneath age 18 had been residing with an unauthorized immigrant guardian as of 2019. That is about 7% of the U.S. little one inhabitants at the moment.
Editor’s word: This story is growing and shall be up to date.
