Dive Brief:
- Immigration enforcement officers apprehended a parent during morning student drop-off hours in California's Chula Vista Elementary School District on Wednesday — marking at least the third known time Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have arrested family members during school pick-up or drop-off time.
- While the arrest was not on public school grounds, it took place near school property, outside of the district's Enrique S. Camarena Elementary School. CVESD Superintendent Eduardo Reyes told families and staff in a community message after the incident that the district serves all students "regardless of citizenship or immigration status."
- In addition, Reyes said the district has "strong protocols in place to prevent unauthorized access to our schools.” The superintendent said the protocols include limiting access for law enforcement, who aren't allowed to interact with students "unless there is an immediate threat to school safety, such as an active emergency or a signed warrant by a judge."
Dive Insight:
“The district remains committed to reassuring families that CVESD remains a safe space for all students," Giovanna Castro, communications director for the district, said in a statement after the ICE arrest, as reported by local Fox 5 News.
Under a January policy change from the Trump administration, ICE can conduct raids on school grounds, among other sensitive locations, which were previously protected from immigration enforcement. Districts have said the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security policy is impacting student attendance and stoking anxieties among their immigrant families.
While DHS clarified to K-12 Dive in June that such immigration enforcement activity on school grounds would be "extremely rare," there have been a handful of incidents on elementary school grounds and during school pick-up and drop-off hours in recent months.
The Aug. 6 incident outside of Camarena Elementary was related to a July 15, 2022, deportation order from a San Diego judge, according to ICE.
“The arrest was part of ICE's ongoing enforcement efforts and was resolved promptly, safely and not on the school grounds,” said Patrick Divver, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations San Diego, in an emailed statement on Friday.
“The school was not involved in the incident, and there was no impact on students, staff or the school premises," Divver said. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring the safety and security of our communities.”
Chula Vista City Councilmember Michael Inzunza told a local news outlet, KPBS, that two children were in the car at the time of the arrest.
Last month, a lawsuit challenging the administration's ICE policy included an account of immigration enforcement apprehending a man dropping his granddaughter off at a church's school in Downey, California, a predominantly Latino suburb of Los Angeles.
Earlier in May, ICE activity in Charlotte, North Carolina, disrupted a church's preschool pickup time, according to a local report by WCNC.
And in April, ICE agents attempted to enter two public elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where school building administrators denied officers entry. That appeared to be one of the first confirmed attempts of immigration enforcement seeking to enter public schools since the change in federal policy.
At the time, DHS said it was conducting “wellness checks on children who arrived unaccompanied at the border.”
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