With President Donald Trump shaking up the country’s immigration policies on Day 1 of his new administration, California legislators are moving to add protections for students and their families.
Two new bills introduced this year address what is called the “sensitive locations” designation, a policy that prevented federal immigration authorities from carrying out enforcement actions at certain places like schools and churches. Trump has already thrown out that guidance.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
But some legislators in California — a state that has adopted so-called sanctuary policies, limiting just how much local law enforcement officials can cooperate with federal immigration efforts — say immigration enforcement at schools is detrimental to children’s education.
“All children have a constitutional right to attend public schools, regardless of immigration status,” said Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance.
“Unfortunately, the threat of federal immigration officials coming onto school grounds to detain undocumented students or family members casts a shadow of fear over all California students,” Muratsuchi, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, added. “Students cannot learn if they are living in fear of being deported or separated from their family members.”
Muratsuchi’s bill would prohibit school or child care employees from allowing ICE officials to enter a school or facility unless they had valid identification and a judicial warrant, a written statement of purpose and explicit permission from the school district’s superintendent or head of the child care center.
And even then, the ICE officials’ access would be restricted to when students and children are not present.
Meanwhile, another bill would create a one-mile buffer around a school site, prohibiting law enforcement agencies from working with or providing information to federal immigration authorities within. Law enforcement would not be able to disclose information about a student, their family or a school employee to federal immigration officials for enforcement actions within that radius.
“In the face of unprecedented deportation threats, schools and communities must provide students and their families guaranteed access to school campuses without fear of deportation, harassment or intimidation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer,” a bill fact sheet from Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, said.
A 2022 study found 1 in 5 California children who are U.S. citizens live with at least one undocumented family member. That equates to about 1.7 million young people throughout the state, researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Texas Tech found.
Some local school districts have already begun to prepare students and families for potential immigration enforcement actions.
Santa Ana Unified’s school board passed a resolution in December that declares its district’s school sites as “safe havens” for students, families and staff, promising that the district will not provide information to or work with ICE.
The resolution also said SAUSD will provide students and families with mental health and legal services information.
“We believe that every student deserves to pursue their education in an environment free from fear and filled with hope,” said SAUSD Superintendent Jerry Almendarez.
Meanwhile, Capistrano Unified — Orange County’s largest school district — already has a policy in place prohibiting staff from sharing student information to federal authorities for immigration enforcement purposes without parental consent or a court order.
And the district has plans in place in case a student’s parent or guardian is taken into custody or deported. The student would be released to the person listed on their emergency contact list and provided with resources, including an ICE detainee locator, legal assistance or information for the consulate or embassy of their parent’s country of origin.
California students, said Muratsuchi, have already been through a lot, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the recent catastrophic wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
“Now they have to worry about either themselves getting deported or that their families will be torn apart,” he said.
Muratsuchi said he’s already received strong support for his bill. “Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, conservative or liberal, we should want all kids to feel safe going to school.”
Patricia Gándara, who teaches education at UCLA where she is the co-director of the Civil Rights Project, said she is concerned about the psychological ramifications the threats of immigration enforcement have on students.
And the fear — whether just from threats or from federal agents actually coming onto campus and pulling a student or teacher out of the classroom — will likely prevent students from even showing up to school.
“Psychologists are telling us that this kind of threat that children feel can last for years, even after they’ve made it through this period of time,” Gándara said. “Kids are not going to be getting an education.”
In the meantime, Muratsuchi said legislators will keep an eye on Trump’s actions and promises.
“We want to continue to remind President Trump that there are Republicans as well as Democrats here in the state of California,” Muratsuchi said.
It’s still early in the legislative session. Neither bill had been assigned to a committee as of Friday.