Federal officials tried to get into two elementary schools in the L.A. Unified district this week but were turned away, district officials confirmed Wednesday. This is the first time that U.S. authorities have been known to have tried to get into a Los Angeles public school over concerns about immigration enforcement.
A message sent by school officials to parents and others said that on Monday, two people showed up at Lillian Street Elementary School’s main office and said they were “representatives of a federal agency.” There were also people at Russell Elementary School. Both schools are in the Florence-Graham neighbourhood in South Los Angeles.
Wednesday, a spokesperson for LAUSD confirmed that the people in question were from the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations unit and not CBP officials. Officials from the district did not say why the people were there or give any other information about the visit.
“Following District protocol, school administrators refused to let the people in, and they left,” school officials said in a letter to both school communities. “We want to make it clear again that the District is fully committed to all students’ health and education.”
It was not possible to get a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security to speak right away.
Supt. Alberto Carvalho of the Los Angeles schools made a short comment about the events on Wednesday night.
“Our schools are places of inspiration, protection, empathy, and knowledge,” said Carvalho. “Fear and threat shall be met with courage and determination.”
“Only these two schools said they saw activity.” “It looks like our procedures are working,” a LAUSD representative told The Times in an email. The spokesperson also said that it is against district policy for immigration officials to be on school grounds.
The LAUSD spokesperson said that other schools told their communities about “reports of immigration enforcement activity” in words that were “cautionary.”
Stefani Williams, principal of Rockdale Elementary School in Eagle Rock, told the people who go there, “LAUSD has told us that they are aware of reports of immigration enforcement activity.”
Immigration officials should not be able to get into a K–12 school without a warrant. The state has put together guidelines to help school districts follow the rule that limits how much the state and local governments can help with immigration enforcement.
The district has made sure that its workers know what kinds of help or paperwork they should and shouldn’t give to federal immigration officials.
In January, Carvalho said that he hoped that agents would not be able to come onto campus at all while he was getting ready for immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
What would be the point of having any kind of court case happen on campus that couldn’t happen anywhere else? “We don’t think it’s necessary or right,” he said in January. “We don’t think the government should be able to go into schools to enforce immigration laws, ever.”
A number of measures passed by the L.A. Board of Education say that L.A. Unified will be a safe place for immigrants.