(C) El Paso Matters.org
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El Paso districts reaffirm protocols on possible immigration enforcement in schools [1]
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Date: 2025-03-17
In the days following a directive from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security rescinding protections against immigration enforcement in schools and other sensitive areas, educators across El Paso scrambled to understand how this could affect them and their students.
“Our schools will always be welcoming spaces where every child – regardless of immigration status – is valued, respected, and supported,” according to an email the El Paso Independent School District sent principals on Jan. 26 – six days after the directive from Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman.
“The district will not take any action that might discourage students from enrolling and participating in school, or that might lead to the exclusion of students, based on immigration status,” the email said.
There is no indication that immigration agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have conducted any enforcement activities in churches, schools, food banks and other locations that previously had been placed largely off-limits by federal policy for more than a decade.
But in response to the directive, the El Paso and Ysleta school districts provided school leaders with existing guidelines to reinforce their protocols – primarily, that law enforcement officers are to be screened for entry and asked to provide a required warrant to conduct any enforcement actions, according to records obtained by El Paso Matters through public records requests.
Among other things, the guidelines also ask employees not to interfere if the agents don’t follow the procedures, directing them instead to call security or the school district’s police chief.
Learn more Trump lifts protections against immigration enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive areas Limits on immigration enforcement actions in or near sensitive areas that have been in place more than a decade, including in the first Trump administration, have been removed.
Socorro ISD didn’t respond to requests for comment, and open records requests didn’t produce any documents or emails on the topic.
SISD’s policies on students being taken into custody on campus by any law enforcement officer, however, require the school’s principal to verify the arresting officer’s identity, verify they have a valid arrest warrant and deliver the student to the officer.
In 2017, YISD and SISD passed resolutions declaring themselves a “Safe Zone” and “Safe Haven” for undocumented students. The resolutions prohibit immigration enforcement agencies from entering a school without a warrant and approval from the superintendent.
Human rights advocacy groups say that principals, security guards and other employees need to be better trained to recognize different types of warrants and what they do – and do not – allow. And, they say, the public needs to recognize undocumented families live in the community and that their children attend area schools.
“Yesterday, a little kinder girl from Venezuela tearfully told me that she and her mother are getting deported back to Venezuela. I tried to reassure her as best I could, but her fear was real,” a Socorro Independent School District counselor wrote to a coworker in an email obtained by El Paso Matters.
Immigration enforcement agencies, including DHS, ICE, Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection, did not respond to El Paso Matters request for comment and questions regarding whether they have conducted any operations in schools.
The El Paso and Ysleta school districts said there have been no attempts by ICE or other immigration enforcement agencies to enter their campuses.
Both districts said they do not collect data on students’ immigration status and noted that the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevents them from sharing student information unless required by law or with parental consent.
See Also The Trump administration says it’s targeting criminals for deportation. ICE arrested these 2 Las Cruces teens as they headed to work. The apprehension by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of a brother and sister with pending asylum applications raises questions about the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, human rights advocates say.
Groups like the El Paso Teachers Association have held workshops in partnership with the Border Network for Human Rights to educate its members on the laws surrounding immigration enforcement.
Some elected officials like EPISD Trustee Leah Hanany decried the directive for the harm they believe it would cause to El Paso’s primarily Hispanic student population. Others, like EPISD Trustee Alex Cuellar, met with employees to talk about the laws and procedures surrounding immigration enforcement in schools.
“We’re not just going to open the schools because we see an ICE agent or a police officer,” Cuellar said in late January during the EPTA workshop at Coach Wally Hartley PreK-8 School.
Laws regarding immigration enforcement in schools
While immigration agencies are no longer barred from conducting enforcement in sensitive areas, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center attorney Allegra Love said agents still need a valid judicial warrant signed by a judge to enter a school building.
“Schools are private property in the sense that no one can just walk onto a school without permission,” Love told El Paso Matters. “So if the warrant isn’t a judicial warrant signed by a judge, a person can deny ICE entry into a building.”
Judicial warrants are issued by judicial courts and allow agents to search property and arrest people. Administrative warrants, issued by federal agencies such as the DHS, allow officers to make seizures and arrests but do not allow them to search a property.
Red Cards, available in English and Spanish, help people assert their constitutional rights if they come in contact with immigration enforcement officers (Claudia Lorena Silva / El Paso Matters)
Love said it’s not as clear what schools can do if ICE or other immigration enforcement agencies attempts to conduct operations in the streets where parents pick up students or areas outside the school.
“There’s some spaces absolutely controlled by the school administrators, and then there’s some spaces where it’s a gray area. Like, is law enforcement allowed to be in a parking lot without school permission?” Love said.
What are the protocols if immigration agents go to a school?
The guidelines provided by EPISD and YISD state a principal or designee will meet immigration enforcement officers at the school entrance, where visitors are screened for entry. They are instructed to ask the officers for identification, their supervisor’s phone number, the reason for their visit and documentation such as a subpoena or warrant.
FBI El Paso assists U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations with immigration enforcement operations, Feb. 3, 2025. (Courtesy FBI El Paso)
Texas law requires schools to keep all exterior doors locked and have a primary entrance that visitors can access during school hours.
The primary entrance must have a barrier that prevents unauthorized visitors from entering and a way for school employees to visually identify visitors from inside, such as a camera and intercom system.
Once they have gathered documents from the officer, the principal or designee must then contact the district’s attorney and tell the officer that they do not have permission to access the school building or school grounds without authorization from legal counsel.
The guidelines sent to EPISD principals also state the officers cannot request information on or speak to campus personnel or students.
Both districts ask the principal or designee to provide the officer with a waiting space outside or in the main office that is not disruptive to the school day.
If the officer does not follow the procedures, employees are asked not to attempt to interfere and contact their district’s police chief or head of security.
The principal or designee is also instructed to contact the parents of the student in question after getting authorization from the district’s attorney.
SISD’s policy requires a school’s principal to notify the superintendent if a student has been taken into custody and contact the student’s parents unless the officer “raises what the principal considers to be a valid objection to notifying the parent at that time.”
If an officer does have a valid warrant, school districts may not be able to stop them from entering a campus, Cuellar said during the EPTA workshop.
“If it’s a valid warrant, and that’s a warrant signed by a judge, then it’s a lawful execution,” Cuellar said.
During the workshop, BNHR Policy Director Samantha Singleton-Sherman raised concerns about who will interact with immigration enforcement officers and how school districts will determine if a warrant is valid.
“There should be a law enforcement officer in the building, and I think that’s who should be addressing the other officer,” Singleton-Sherman said. “You’re asking principals to take the lead on something. Unless the school district is willing to train them on what an arrest warrant looks like versus a non-arrest warrant, I think that what you’re doing is setting people up for failure.”
Most of El Paso’s larger school districts have their own police forces, but Ysleta and some smaller school districts do not.
Supporting El Paso students
While school administrators focused on how they would respond if immigration officers attempted to enter one of their campuses, many educators were concerned with how they could support students affected by the Trump administration’s promise to increase deportations.
Emails obtained by El Paso Matters showed school employees discussing students’ fears of being deported and sharing resources with one another on how to offer them support.
El Paso Teachers Association President Norma De La Rosa distributes “Red Cards” to her members with information to help people assert their rights if stopped by immigration enforcement agents, Jan. 27, 2025, at the Coach Wally Hartley PreK-8 School. (Claudia Lorena Silva / El Paso Matters)
During the EPTA workshop, members of the BNHR encouraged teachers to direct students and their families to resources with information on their rights and how they can respond to immigration enforcement attempts.
Some of those rights include the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government and requires enforcement agencies to have a warrant before entering a home without permission, and the Fifth Amendment, which allows people to refuse to answer questions from law enforcement.
“We have to recognize that in El Paso, there are undocumented students, undocumented families, and it’s very important that we give them the tools that they need,” said BNHR Communications Coordinator Alan Lizarraga. “The frustrations that we’ve heard from community members, not wanting to send your kids to school, not knowing if they’re going to come back and not find their parents in the house. I think those are real fears.”
Love told El Paso Matters that teachers should educate themselves on their school’s policy around immigration enforcement and work with organizations like Las Americas and BNHR, which can provide comprehensive information on the topic.
‘It’s not necessarily a teacher’s job to educate families on their constitutional rights, especially here in El Paso, where we have organizations that are ready to do those educational pieces for school communities,” Love said.
She said teachers can also help by offering a safe space for students where they can confide their concerns and make referrals to counseling services “to continue building out community support for students.”
Some of the resources educators shared with each other on how to support students included the National Education Association’s Guide on Immigration Issues published in January before protections for sensitive places were repealed.
The guide states school districts can partner with attorneys or immigrants’ rights groups to host “know your rights” workshops for families and students and distribute Red Cards used to help people assert their rights if immigration agents come to their home.
Former EPISD teacher and EPTA member Xavier Miranda said he has reached out to Region 19 and school districts in El Paso to host “know your rights” workshops but has not gotten a response.
Miranda said the few community workshops held by the BNHR have been sparsely attended, likely because residents fear they may be targeted by immigration enforcement agencies.
“They’re afraid that they’re going to be identified correctly or incorrectly, as being undocumented,” Miranda said. “There’s a lot of vigilance.”
Teachers and counselors can also help families who face the threat of deportation or detention create Family Preparedness Plans. These plans have families compile important information such as emergency contact numbers, child care arrangements and documents such as passports that loved ones can use in case a person is detained.
The guide also tells school employees that their speech and ability to protest may be limited at their work.
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http://elpasomatters.org/2025/03/17/immigration-enforcement-school-guidelines-protected-spaces-episd-yisd/
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