High school principals across California and nationwide say raids by Immigration, Customs and Enforcement have provoked a “climate of distress” among immigrant students who have been bullied on campus and whose attendance has dropped, according to a study released Tuesday.
Seventy percent of public high school principals surveyed said students from immigrant families expressed fears for themselves or their families because of ICE crackdowns or political rhetoric related to immigrants, according to the report by researchers at UCLA and UC Riverside.
The findings echo the narrative of what schools and districts have reported across Southern California since President Trump took office in January and began aggressive immigration raids.
One California principal told researchers she has seen staff members “breaking down in tears about a student.”
“It just doesn’t feel very American,” she added.
John Rogers, a UCLA education professor who co-authored the report, said it was “striking” that principals “across every region in the country spoke of fear and concern in their school communities related to immigration enforcement.”
The researchers surveyed 606 public high school principals from May to August to understand how schools have been affected by Trump’s immigration enforcement. More than 1 in 3 principals, about 36%, said students from immigrant families have been bullied, and 64% said their attendance has dropped.
A drop in attendance has been verified by other researchers who collected data from California’s Central Valley and the Northeastern states. There’s also been a decline in K-12 enrollment that appears to number in at least the tens of thousands, affecting cities including Los Angeles, San Diego and Miami, based on figures provided by school district officials.
Principals, including in Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan, noticed an uptick in students using hostile and derogatory language toward classmates from immigrant families. Some said a political climate that has normalized attacks on immigrants was to blame.
The vast majority of principals surveyed, nearly 78%, said their campuses created plans to respond to visits from federal agents and nearly half have a contingency plan for when a student’s parents are deported.
In this effort, schools in Los Angeles County have been leaders, taking quick and unprecedented steps to protect and reassure families. L.A. Unified, for example, has provided direct home-to-school transportation for some students.
Their fears are not without cause. In April, Los Angeles principals turned away immigration agents who tried to enter two elementary schools, claiming to be conducting a wellness check with family permission. School district officials said no such permission had been granted.
At a public meeting in November, L.A. school board member Karla Griego reported that a parent was taken into custody on his way to a school meeting about an updated education plan to manage his child’s disabilities.
Charter schools have taken measures to reassure families as well. In the days following a major ICE raid in L.A., attendance rates at Alliance Morgan McKinzie High School in East L.A. slipped from the typical high-90% range to the low 90s, principal Rosa Menendez said.
“A lot of our families have been really impacted and terrified,” Menendez said. “A lot of our kids are afraid to come to school.”
As ICE raids escalated last summer, the charter school ramped up supervision, posting staff members around bus and train stations to watch students arrive and leave. The school will stay open during winter break, offering sports, video games and arts and crafts so students have a safe place to go.
Immigration enforcement is personal for Menendez, who is a child of Salvadorian immigrants and has undocumented family members.
“Coming off the heels of COVID, we were trying to keep our kids safe and healthy, and now it’s a whole other layer of safety,” Menendez said. “But we’re also worrying about our own families … It does add a very intense layer of stress.”
Earlier this year the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying ICE does not “raid or target schools.” However, the Trump administration in January rescinded long-standing protections for “sensitive” locations that since 2011 had prevented ICE from arresting people in schools and churches.
A double duty to protect and teach
In addition to the survey, the researchers conducted 49 follow-up Zoom interviews with principals chosen to reflect a diverse mix of schools. Names were withheld over concern that their schools could become targets for immigration enforcement.
One California principal, whose school is located in a predominantly immigrant neighborhood, told researchers her school’s sense of safety evaporated in the spring when news of nearby ICE raids broke during an assembly.
This account was an echo of the unease that spread through a spring graduation ceremony at Huntington Park High School when an ICE raid began at the adjacent Home Depot.
The principals noted that parents have felt torn between keeping themselves and family members safe and supporting their children’s education. In L.A. high schools, many parents elected not to attend graduation last spring.
Immigration enforcement isn’t just affecting students. Many school staff members feel a “double sense of duty” to protect as well as teach, the California principal said.
This administrator also said teachers have joined local immigrant rights networks, walking the blocks in the neighborhood before school each day to ensure there is a safe pathway to campus. One teacher, whose father is undocumented, frequently worries about suspicious cars in the school’s parking lot, the principal said.
“[W]e always want to make sure we’re not caught off guard,” she said. On top of longstanding fears of a potential active shooter situation, she now worries daily that ICE agents will show up. “It’s a lot,” she added.
Maria Nichols, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles and a former LAUSD principal, praised the district for taking quick action to provide school leaders with protocols to follow in case of a raid. But she said the job of a principal has become even more taxing because LAUSD staffing cuts reduced the number of assistant principals.
“The leader, of course, is responsible for the logistics, protocols and procedural matters, but … also has to uplift their school and their community,” Nichols said. “They’re dealing with a crisis right now and it is a very, very difficult and heavy toll at a time where we have less human capital at schools.”
School leaders across the country echoed the sentiments of the California principal.
One Idaho principal told the researchers she worries each day that ICE agents would show up with a judicial warrant to detain students. “As the building leader,” she said, “I feel like I’m responsible for their safety. I hate that, because I don’t feel I’m able to protect them.”
