Back-to-School Fears: ICE, Deportation, and Steps Parents Can Take

Back-to-School Fears: ICE, Deportation, and Steps Parents Can Take

Children all over the United States are returning back to the classroom this fall, with many already completing their first week of school. For example, students in the Miami-Dade County school district started the 2025-2026 school year this past Thursday, August 14th.¹ While this time of year is usually filled with excitement, for many immigrant families, it is also clouded by concern with the fear of deportation and family separation.

Growing Concerns in School Districts

According to a recent ABC News report, numerous school districts in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, have seen heightened anxiety among immigrant families.² Mixed-status families where one or both parents are undocumented but the kids are U.S. citizens, also “unenrolled from the district after [President] Trump took office.”³ Esmeralda Alday, a former executive director of dual language for the San Antonio Independent School District, stated that this was due “to the perceived threats from ICE” and that some families had received detention orders in the mail.⁴

Many parents worry that their immigration status in the country could result in their children being separated from them, or that children could face encounters with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).⁵ In some areas, attendance rates have declined, raising concerns about both educational participation and student well-being.⁶ This fear can have lasting effects for the families impacted and the students attending school including:

• Lower attendance as families keep children home from school
• Emotional strain such as stress and anxiety among students
• Difficult immigration decisions with some families opting to leave the U.S. altogether to avoid uncertainty.⁷

Why These Concerns are Escalating

Immigration policy changes in recent months have contributed to rising unease. Policies that once discouraged ICE from operating near schools were rolled back during the Trump administration’s second term.⁸ As a result, school officials, parents, and community organizations have been adjusting to new realities.⁹

Community groups, such as the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), have responded by hosting “know your rights” events as well as online informational resources on knowing your rights when encountering ICE agents.¹⁰ Parents have also taken steps such as drafting emergency custody plans or ensuring children know who to contact in case of an unexpected separation.¹¹ For example, undocumented parents in South Florida are making legal plans to ensure their school-aged children are cared for if they are detained or deported on top of preparing for school itself.¹²

How Schools and States are Responding

Educators and policymakers across the country have been working to ease these fears and protect students’ access to education. Illinois legislators, for example, passed a law affirming that public schools cannot deny a child access to education based on immigration status. Schools must also follow clear procedures when responding to law enforcement requests.¹³ In Los Angeles, school officials are distributing “know your rights” guides, adjusting bus routes, and requesting that ICE maintain a buffer zone of at least two blocks around school campuses during critical hours.¹⁴

Know Your Rights

While not absolute, schools have historically been treated as sensitive locations, meaning immigration enforcement actions are generally discouraged on or near campuses. The Trump Administration’s new immigration policies, however, have allowed ICE agents to operate in relation to their mission of reducing illegal immigrants present in the United States. It is important to know your rights if you or your children are approached by immigration authorities. ¹⁵

1. You have a right to remain silent. This means that individuals are not required to answer questions about their immigration status if immigration authorities ask.
2. ICE must generally present a judicial warrant to enter private areas, including schools. Administrative ICE documents are not the same as judicial warrants.
3. Parents and/or guardians may want to prepare custody or guardianship documents in case of unexpected detention or removal, ensuring that your children have designated caregivers.

If you or your children have been arrested or detained by ICE, it is crucial to contact an immigration attorney to assist you in protecting your rights. An experienced immigration attorney can provide individualized guidance, review immigration options, and assist in creating a family preparedness plan. 

Contact an Immigration Attorney Today

While immigration concerns remain part of the broader national conversation, families can take proactive steps to understand their rights, prepare for emergencies, and seek legal support when necessary. Schools, communities, policymakers, and immigration attorneys continue working toward ensuring that every child has access to education in a safe and stable environment

Contact Arias and Pereira, PLLC at 786-360-1341 or click “Contact Us”  if you or your child require legal support, or have been detained by ICE agents. Our immigration attorneys, Maggie Arias and Eduardo Pereira, are here to help. 

Sources

1. Miami Times Staff Report, Miami-Dade County Public Schools 2025-2026 Calendar, The Miami Times (May 9, 2025), https://www.miamitimesonline.com/education/miami-dade-county-public-schools-2025—2026-calendar/article_30e75220-4abc-4612-97d0-4f40a99884d0.html. ↩︎
2. Arthur Jones II, Immigrant families fear Trump’s deportations as children return to school, ABC (Aug. 19, 2025), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/immigrant-families-fear-trumps-deportations-children-return-school/story?id=124753982. ↩︎
3. Id. ↩︎
4. Id. ↩︎
5. See Anna North, Trump’s Immigration Polices is already terrifying America’s kids, VOX (Jan. 31, 2025), https://www.vox.com/education/397259/ice-raids-schools-trump-immigration-kids; see also Kiara Alfonseca and Melissa Adan, Children, schools face renewed fears over heightened immigration enforcement, ABC News (Feb. 8, 2025), https://abcnews.go.com/US/children-schools-face-renewed-fears-heightened-immigration-enforcement/story?id=118433526. ↩︎
6. See id.; see also Robin Buller, How Millions of U.S. Children would be hurt by Trump’s mass deportation plan: ‘Deep harm is intentional,’ The Guardian (Nov. 22, 2024), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-mass-deportations-immigration-family-children-separation. ↩︎
7. Id. ↩︎
8. Luke Barr and Julia Reinstein, Trump authorizes ICE to target courthouses, schools and churches, ABC News (Jan. 22, 2025), https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-authorizes-ice-target-schools-churches/story?id=117954409. ↩︎
9. See Brian Boggs, ICE Can Now Enter K-12 Schools – here’s what educators should know about student rights and privacy, The Conversation (Apr. 11, 2025), https://theconversation.com/ice-can-now-enter-k-12-schools-heres-what-educators-should-know-about-student-rights-and-privacy-253519. ↩︎
10. Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Know Your Rights Fact Sheet, ICIRR https://www.icirr.org/fsn. ↩︎
11. See Katie Bente, Back to school, bracing for ICE: Undocumented parents make emergency plans, CBS12 (Aug. 7, 2025), https://cbs12.com/news/local/story/back-to-school-bracing-for-ice-undocumented-parents-make-emergency-plans. ↩︎
12. See id. ↩︎
13. See Emmanuel Camarillo, New Illinois law guarantees immigrant students access to public education, Chicago Sun Times, (Aug. 19, 2025), https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/08/19/illinois-law-immigrant-students-access-public-education.   ↩︎
14. See Ray Sanchez, How Teachers are Preparing Themselves and Their Students for Immigration Sweeps, CNN (Feb. 8, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/us/teachers-ice-immigration-sweeps-schools/index.html. ↩︎
15. See Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Protecting Students in Schools Against Immigration Enforcement: What Schools and Parents Can Do, ILRC (July 28, 2025), https://www.ilrc.org/community-resources/protecting-children-schools-against-immigration-enforcement. ↩︎