With the newly installed Trump administration ordering immigration authorities to target schools and other previously protected “sensitive areas,” the Salt Lake City School District has shared a heartfelt and informational message with students and families.
“Please know that your child – and every child, regardless of immigration status – is welcome in our schools,” began the message, emailed to parents Tuesday evening. “Undocumented children and young adults still have the same right to attend public primary and secondary schools as U.S. citizens and permanent residents.”
School districts across Utah sent out similar missives Tuesday evening, as they work to understand the implications of the policy change on undocumented students while at school.
The state has yet to offer guidance on the matter, leaving it unclear how Utah schools can respond legally if immigration enforcement occurs on school grounds.
A Utah State Board of Education spokesperson said Wednesday that the board “has not put out any official statewide guidance at this time.”
The directive — issued by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, the day President Donald Trump was sworn in — allows immigration authorities to enter schools, healthcare facilities and churches to make arrests. Those spaces that were previously deemed “sensitive” and off-limits to such activity.
“With the newly installed brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens —including murders [sic] and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
Andrea Stringham, spokesperson for Granite Schools, said she’s been with the district for two years and has never encountered a case of undocumented criminals “hiding” in schools.
Schools tell families: We can’t disclose your immigration status
Utah school districts are moving quickly to gather information to share with students and families, several officials told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday.
School officials stress that schools cannot disclose families’ immigration status to federal authorities, as this information is not required for student enrollment in U.S. public schools.
“We wanted to highlight that we do not collect immigration information so we [won’t] be a source of sharing anything about their family in that way,” said Yándary Chatwin, spokesperson for the Salt Lake City School District.
Districts are also sharing resources, such as counseling services and safe spaces for students who need support.
While official statewide guidance has not yet been released, the Canyons School District instructed staff in an email Wednesday to follow standard visitor protocol, meaning all adults entering a school must provide identification.
Should an immigration agent arrive and present legal documentation, Canyons’ staff must immediately contact district legal services.
Canyons also plans to offer counseling services and other resources if a student’s parent is detained while they’re at school.
What can Utah families do?
Ciriac Alvarez, a senior policy analyst for the nonprofit Voices for Utah Children, said one of the most important things families can do is ensure their child’s school has up-to-date contact and emergency contact information to prepare for a situation where a parent is detained.
“That definitely will ease some of those worries of like, ‘What’s going to happen to my child if I am detained as a parent?’” she said.
Alvarez said she believes the most immediate effect of the policy change may be fear: Kids could be too scared to go to school and parents could be too scared to take them there.
That increased fear, she said, is possibly warranted, given the elimination of sensitive spaces that falls in line with other actions by the Trump administration — such as threatening to revoke birthright citizenship for people born in the United States to undocumented parents.
“As a kid, I knew I wasn’t documented,” Alvarez said. “For me, I think [this situation] would have solidified that fear and the reality that something could happen to me or my family.”
While she’s unsure how the policy change might affect school attendance among undocumented students, she commended districts like Salt Lake Schools that already have policies in place.
How schools can prepare
Even though sensitive areas are no longer off-limits for ICE, Alvarez said “that doesn’t mean that schools or early education centers can’t create their own policies within their schools to protect the well-being of their kids.”
Schools, Alvarez said, should have officials ready who understand what information they should and shouldn’t share, and what questions they should ask ICE officials if the need arises — like whether they have a warrant and who authorized it.
Districts should also be prepared to accurately communicate what’s going on with parents and staff, she added. They should be prepared to inform parents and staff if there’s an agent present.
Even with the stresses and concerns of the policy shift, Alvarez said she hopes people still see schools as “a place where their kids have the right to attend and can attend and should attend.”
Regardless of someone’s legal status, Alvarez said, immigration is an issue that affects communities at large. If an ICE agent is in a school, she said, they’re likely not detaining strangers.
“It’s most likely someone that you know, or someone that is within your school community,” she said.
