How Immigration Enforcement Is Harming US Schools and Students

{snip}

Almost immediately after taking office for his second term, President Trump rescinded Biden-era guidance that restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining people near “protected areas.” This means that ICE has more autonomy to operate at or near locations such hospitals, places of worship, sites of religious ceremonies, public demonstrations—and schools. Further, the federal government has relaxed the conditions under which ICE agents can forcibly enter homes, along with lowering hiring standards and reducing training for ICE officers. Taken together, these actions are destabilizing immigrant families and communities, for whom federal law enforcement has become a constant fixture.

{snip}

K-12 Dive has been tracking ICE activity on school grounds, and at least 13 instances have been reported since January 2025. Reports from across the country have also described how immigrant families are afraid to send their children to school. This could be due to parents’ heightened fears of being detained en route to school—or even on school grounds now that school entrances, playgrounds, and other public areas are no longer protected from ICE.

Research on student attendance patterns corroborate these reports, especially in places targeted by ICE and in communities with larger immigrant populations. A recent survey published by the Urban Institute finds that 10% of adults from immigrant families reported not sending their children to school because of immigration enforcement concerns. One study of a California school district showed that daily student absences increased by 22% after ICE conducted raids early in 2025. The largest jump in absences occurred among the youngest students. Research from Connecticut and Rhode Island showed declines in attendance and increases in chronic absenteeism for students classified as English learners (EL) since Trump took office for his second term. (Researchers often use EL status or Latino ethnic origin as a proxy for immigration status, since schools do not collect information on students’ immigration status.) Studies from earlier periods of enforcement have found immediate and sustained drops in student attendance following immigration arrests, as well as Latino student departures from school districts where local law enforcement entered into cooperative (287(g)) agreements with ICE.

Educators are noticing these patterns. In a nationally representative survey administered between June and August 2025, 64% of high school principals reported that students in immigrant families had missed school in the previous year due to policies or rhetoric related to immigrants.

{snip}

Students’ postsecondary educational trajectories can also be hampered by exposure to immigration enforcement. One of the consequences associated with a large-scale workplace raid in Texas was a decline in direct four-year college enrollment immediately following high school and shifts toward employment during high school, particularly among Latino and EL students. These deterrent effects may compound already existing obstacles to the pursuit of higher education for undocumented students who are already more likely to enroll in two-year institutions.

{snip}