School and district leaders are navigating questions from educators, students, and families on how safe schools are from deportations after the Trump administration rescinded a policy protecting schools from immigration enforcement actions.
But just how many students and families would be affected by changes to immigration policies? That number—likely in the tens of millions—stretches beyond estimates of an undocumented immigrant population, researchers said.
Students who are undocumented, students in households where one or more relatives are undocumented, immigrant students with visas or other temporary protections against deportation, and U.S.-born citizens with friends who aren’t showing up to school out of fear of deportation are among those experiencing fear and concern over the Trump administration’s priority of mass deportations and other changes to federal immigration policy, said Julie Sugarman, the associate director for K-12 education research at the Migration Policy Institute think tank.
In numbers, this translates to:
651,000
In 2019, approximately 651,000 undocumented immigrant children ages 3 to 17 were enrolled in schools in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s analysis of U.S. Census data.
19.5 million
In 2019, MPI estimated that 19.5 million people lived in mixed-status households (defined as having at least one unauthorized immigrant household member and at least one person who is a U.S.-born citizen or a legal immigrant).
6.3 million
Of the 19.5 million people who lived in mixed-status households in 2019, about 6.3 million were children.
17.8 million
According to U.S. Census data, just under 18 million children under the age of 18 in the United States in 2023 had one or more foreign-born parents of various legal statuses, including naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent immigrants, immigrants with some kind of visa, and those with an unauthorized status.
2.5 million
In 2023, close to 2.5 million children under the age of 18 were foreign-born themselves.
13.7 million
Overall, with an updated methodology, MPI now estimates about 13.7 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States as of mid-2023.
Federal law bars schools from tracking students’ immigration status
Schools don’t track students’ immigration status due to the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which granted undocumented students the right to a free, public education.
Some state leaders, such as Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters, and conservative groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, are seeking to change that by requiring schools to count the number of undocumented students enrolled and/or charge them tuition.
Sugarman at the Migration Policy Institute said there’s been a question over the fact that the federal government decides who gets to enter the country but then leaves it up to state and local agencies to pay for a growing population.
However, the counter argument that has prevailed since the Plyler decision is that undocumented students are already in the country.
“They’re here. We have to educate them,” Sugarman said. “It doesn’t really matter what their status is. It doesn’t really matter how much it costs, because we are required to educate them. Whatever the cost is of educating any child, whatever their status is, doesn’t really change the fact that we need teachers, and we need curriculum, we need all these other things.”
She added that knowing a student’s immigration status isn’t as pedagogically useful as knowing their language proficiency when it comes to determining needs and how to meet them.
Immigration policies affect entire communities
While undocumented students and families are at the greatest risk for deportation under new federal policy, immigrants who have what researchers call “liminal” protections are also fearful as the Trump administration makes immigration a key priority. These are statuses that protect immigrants from deportation but don’t offer a pathway to citizenship.
On Feb. 20, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Temporary Protected Status for Haitians will end Aug. 3 after the agency vacated the Biden administration’s decision to extend the protected status through February 2026.
TPS is a designation granted to foreign countries by the Department of Homeland Security. TPS beneficiaries cannot be deported while the status is in place, and can obtain work permits, but they have no clear pathway to citizenship, according to the agency. It’s a status granted to account for natural disasters or political upheaval in foreign countries. As of July 2024, more than 520,000 Haitians were eligible to register for TPS, according to the department.
Alejandra Vázquez Baur, co-founder and director of the National Newcomer Network, a coalition of experts pushing for equitable education for newcomer students, said the ripple effect of fear around enhanced immigration enforcement reaches even U.S.-born students.
“They notice that their classmates are not showing up. Their friends are not at recess. That impacts them and how they think about their educational futures,” Vázquez Baur said.
“Immigrants are already a part of the broader school community and their city communities,” she added. “As we start to take away community members, everybody else around them will notice the impact.”
