Shortly after now-President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Victor Vergara, the superintendent of the Mount Vernon school district in Washington state, looked around to see whether fellow district leaders were establishing clear, formal immigration-related protocols for their schools.
Trump ran on an anti-immigration campaign, promising mass deportations. Since his return to office in January, his administration has rescinded a longstanding policy protecting schools as “sensitive locations” from immigration enforcement. And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched multiple immigration arrest campaigns that have spread fear and anxiety in school districts across the country as students and families are detained at work sites and court appointments.
Vergara leads a district with a large Latino population. He wanted to help families feel safe sending their children to school. With the help of his legal counsel and school board, he established protocols and resolutions in December and February on what staff should do if federal immigration officers ask to enter a school building or ask for student information.
He’s not alone in taking such action.
The EdWeek Research Center conducted a survey from Sept. 24 to Nov. 3 of a nationally representative sample of 693 educators. Eighty-six percent of the survey respondents said they have current students from immigrant families in which the children or at least one parent were born outside the United States.
Of these educators working with immigrant families, 71% said their school or district has some immigration-related protocol in place. Twenty-seven percent said the protocols are not written down or communicated widely. Meanwhile, 29% percent said there are no such protocols in place.
(Another 30% of educators working with immigrant families said they “did not know” and were excluded from further analysis.)
Educators in suburban (54%) and urban (57%) districts were more likely to report having written protocols than those in rural or town settings (30%). Rural and town educators were also far more likely to say their districts have no protocols—40%, compared with 27% in suburban areas and 14% in urban ones.
The reasons why districts and schools would or would not establish immigration-related protocols can vary. But immigrant student advocates argue such action is a straightforward, preventive step schools can take to protect students.
“It was my moral obligation to do this,” Vergara said.
What immigration-related protocols can entail
At the Mount Vernon school district, staff members across schools are aware that if federal immigration officers arrive on a campus, they must immediately contact Vergara, his assistant superintendent, or another designated person, who will arrive to ask specific questions of the federal agents before anything else happens, such as questions about any warrants available.
The district has added “Authorized Personnel Only” signs to campuses as well to reinforce the need to go through protocols. And the district has partnered with city officials and the local police department to communicate with each other if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are in town, Vergara said.
Vergara has also widely communicated these efforts to families.
“As the leader of my community and [an] immigrant myself, I think it’s my moral obligation to be transparent about this,” he said.
Immigrant student advocates and legal experts have been advising school districts this year to set up protocols that, at a minimum, build off pre-existing protocols for checking guests in at the front desk. Specifically, protocols can focus on requesting that federal agents show a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge and that a designated person, such as a principal or superintendent, be called in to meet with the agents and have general counsel review the documentation before granting access to a building or student information.
In Indiana, however, one such protocol ended up in litigation.
Todd Rokita, Indiana’s attorney general, sued the Indianapolis public school district early this month over the district’s policies regarding cooperating with federal immigration officers.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that in January, district officials did not release a student to ICE officers when they were trying to reunite the student with his father, who had entered into a voluntary deportation order with ICE and wished to leave with his son.
The lawsuit adds that school district officials requested that ICE officers “produce a judicial order concerning the deportation of the son or demonstrate that there were exigent circumstances that would justify ICE taking the son into custody.” Officers allegedly said there was no need for such documentation.
Following that January incident, Rokita called for the district to amend its immigration enforcement policies to align with state law, which says that schools and other governmental bodies “may not limit or restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law.” He threatened legal action if the district did not comply.
Indianapolis school board members, in a statement responding to the current lawsuit, said they had been working with Rokita’s office to review their policies and procedures, but were not given enough time to respond.
“Indianapolis Public Schools is committed to ensuring safe, supportive, and welcoming learning environments for all students. As has always been the case, we will continue to uphold the law while keeping these commitments,” the board added.
“While IPS takes all legal obligations seriously, we respectfully hope that all concerned parties will recognize the heavy burden that silly litigation and political posturing places on students, families, and taxpayers,” the school board added.
Vergara remains resolute about the need for an immigration-related protocol for his district, regardless of any legal risks in doing so, as in the case of the Indianapolis district.
“My legal counsel, my board, we know that things can change tomorrow,” he said. “I always have those concerns, and I guess I’m prepared as much as I can be.”
Why immigrant student advocates call for clear protocols
Having an immigration-related protocol or policy makes the process clear for people who engage with visitors at school sites, said Alejandra Vazquez Baur, a fellow at the Century Foundation and co-founder of the National Newcomer Network, a coalition of educators and immigrant advocates.
Often, such protocols and policies come from the top down.
Of the educators surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center who work with immigrant families and who said their school or district had an immigration-related protocol in place, 75% said their district developed protocols for all schools.
Suburban educators (85%) were most likely to say their districts developed these protocols, compared with 71% of urban and 69% of rural or town educators. Educators in mid-sized and large districts were also more likely to say their district took the lead—about 8 in 10 (81% each)—compared with 66% of those working in smaller districts with fewer than 2,500 students.
Vazquez Baur and other advocates argue that even as top leaders in districts establish these protocols, all staff on campuses need to be made aware and trained on the protocols.
“We know that it is not just the front desk people who engage with immigration enforcement,” Vazquez Baur said.
She has seen cases of bus drivers, teachers volunteering to help students cross the street onto school property, and even sports team coaches all having to suddenly engage with immigration officers.
“Everyone on the school campus needs to know the policy in case that they might have to be the ones to enforce the policy,” she added. “Because the point of the policy is not just this is the right thing to do. These are also important and critical rights of children.”
While she recognizes that some districts that don’t have such protocols or policies in place may be new to serving immigrant families, she said now is the time for those districts to better connect with these families and connect with local community organizations that can help with family outreach.
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.
