A charter school network on the Southwest Side of Chicago informed parents that an adult was detained Wednesday morning by federal immigration officials outside a school building when dropping children off for class.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not immediately confirm the action.
Advocates say this may be the first time since President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown started in January that ICE has detained an individual as children were arriving or leaving a Chicago school. The Trump administration last month said it would allow agents to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, ending a policy in effect since 2011. Still, Chicago school leaders have pledged not to allow ICE agents inside schools except when they have a proper criminal arrest warrant.
Arrests near schools are something parents have feared, even as they have been assured their children would be safe once they are in school, said Andrea Ortiz, director of organizing for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.
“It is really terrifying for families and traumatizing for students,” she said.
Acero Schools, the charter school network that informed parents about the situation, said it is providing support for those directly impacted.
“We understand how stressful and upsetting this is to our school communities,” network officials wrote in a message to parents on Wednesday.
In the communication to parents, Acero officials said at 8:15 a.m., agents from ICE and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives approached an individual in a car outside of Soto High School at 5025 S. St Louis Ave. in Gage Park.
Staff from the school escorted two students from the car into school and no one was hurt, according to the communication to parents. Soto High School is on the same campus as an Acero elementary school, so it is unclear what school the children attended. An individual was detained, according to the Acero letter.
Acero Chief Culture Officer Helena Stangle said in a statement that staff followed protocols. She said Acero has a civil rights resource hub on its website and regularly shares information about “know your rights” sessions that parents can attend.
The charter school network pledged to parents that it will continue monitoring “activity to ensure the safest environment for all our students.”
Acero has seen a decline in typical attendance rates by as much as 4% since January, though Stangle said in the statement they don’t know if this is fully attributable to the Trump administration’s threats of mass deportation.
Ortiz said it is “comforting to see that school administrators have acted fast and have moved to connect families to resources and secure the safety of their families.” After the initial wave of fear right after Trump’s inauguration, she said families were starting to feel more comfortable sending their children to school.
Now, she worries this incident will “refuel those fears.” Still, Ortiz said she hopes people will understand that the community can be “more powerful than ICE.”
The “community is committed to ensuring families feel prepared and ready in this fight,” she said.
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.