New Guidance Taking Away Sanctuary Protections From Schools and Churches Terrorizes Immigrant Families
January 22, 2025
Washington, DC – In response to news that the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era guideline that prohibited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from entering schools, churches and hospitals to arrest undocumented people, Advancement Project executive director Judith Browne Dianis issued this statement:
“The Trump Administration’s move to allow ICE into schools, churches and hospitals is designed to terrorize immigrant communities, causing families to question whether they should separate from their children even for the length of a school day or risk deportation. It is a clear signal from the Administration, telling families that no place is safe and even their children are targets of the President’s cruel agenda to tear people away from their homes and communities.
Under this directive, police officers called school resource officers could escalate school disciplinary matters into deportations, fueling the school-to-deportation pipeline. Even minor, age-appropriate disagreements between children could lead to irreparable harm, with lives completely upended and families torn apart. Parents will fear getting arrested at school pickup and dropoff. When combined with the new expedited removal policy that permits deportation without due process, families may fear being disappeared at the schoolhouse doors. Many families will become too afraid to send their children to school altogether.
This directive is unacceptable. It is well settled law that undocumented students have a right to public education. Schools must push back by referring ICE to the Superintendent’s Office, where the Superintendent should demand that ICE provide written authority directing agents to enter the school grounds. Schools must also refuse to share private information on students and end contracts with local police departments to remove police from schools.
Schools are where childhood happens. They are places of learning where students deserve to feel safe. We must come together to protect their safety.”
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Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice.Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.
