Chicago school officials claimed several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tried to enter a majority-Latino elementary school in the south side of Chicago on Friday, days after Donald Trump’s administration rescinded long-standing policy that prohibits law enforcement actions in schools and churches.
But the officers were reportedly with Secret Service, investigating a nearby threat.
A spokesperson for ICE told The Independent that “this was not an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement encounter.” Chicago Police Department officers were not present at the school, and the department “did not receive any calls for service” to the school, a department spokesperson told The Independent. No arrests were made, according to school officials.
School officials and advocates — on edge after preparing for abrasive immigration enforcement actions after Trump’s inauguration — had initially attributed the incident to ICE officers, and staged a press conference outside the school on Friday to ensure families they are protected under city and state law and school policies against sharing information with immigration authorities.
Federal agents “showed up” at Hamline Elementary School in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood at 11:15 a.m. local time, according to Chicago Public Schools chief education officer Bogdana Chkoumbova.
School staff “kept ICE agents outside of the school” and contacted Chicago Public Schools legal and public safety offices for further guidance, Chkoumbova told reporters.
“The ICE agents were not allowed into the school and were not permitted to speak to any students or staff members,” she added. “Here is the bottom line: our students and staff are safe. Our protocols were followed.”
The school was briefly on soft lock down.
“We will not open our doors for ICE, and we are here to protect our children and make sure they have access to an excellent education,” Hamline principal Natasha Ortega told reporters on Friday. “We stand in solidarity with our families and the Back of the Yards community.”
The action would have been the first targeting a school following the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to drop a policy that prevented enforcement actions in schools, daycare centers, hospitals, churches and other “sensitive” sites.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement this week. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
The student population of Hamline Elementary is roughly 92 percent Hispanic, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Roughly 570 students attend the school, which includes kindergarten through eighth grade classes.
Adding to the confusion, when asked about the incident on Fox News, White House aide Stephen Miller did not deny that ICE was involved.
Miller said “there is no sanctuary for criminal aliens in this country.”
“ICE officers will take the actions necessary to protect the lives and safety of our children, and to identify individuals who are involved in the smuggling and trafficking of our children,” he said. “Federal law enforcement needs unrestricted access to conduct basic investigations.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also weighed into reporting on the incident, writing on social media that “the first reports of raids in Chicago are at an elementary school” following “a week of Republicans sowing fear and chaos.”
“Targeting children and separating families is cruel and un-American,” he wrote.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan had promised Chicago would serve as ground zero for the Trump administration’s “mass deportation operations,” and schools, faith leaders and community groups have been preparing “know your rights” training and fielding dozens of questions from immigrants and their families about what they can expect.
More than 4 million U.S. citizen children live with at least one undocumented parent, and another 6 million citizen children live with an undocumented family member, as of 2018, according to the American Immigration Council think tank.
More than 17 million children have at least one foreign-born parent, including parents who are citizens or have lawful status.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates there are 733,000 school-aged undocumented children in the United States.
Chicago’s public school system “does not ask for our families’ immigration status” and “will not coordinate” with ICE, chief education officer Bogdana Chkoumbova told reporters Friday.
Schools also do not share student records with ICE, “except in the rare case where this is a court order or consent from a parent or a guardian,” she said.
State law under the TRUST Act and under Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance also prohibit schools from asking students or their families about their immigration status and cooperating with ICE.
Hamline and other schools in the Chicago area have shared guidance with families and staff following Trump’s inauguration to ensure “schools remain safe, inclusive, and welcoming educational environments that embrace and celebrate everyone in our diverse school communities,” according to the city’s public school system.
“Children should not have to live in any type of fear or have anything trying to encumber their entry,” Chicago Teachers Union president Stacey Davis Gates said.
