People of a certain age may remember when schools in the United States trained their students about what to do in case of a Soviet nuclear attack.
Hide under your desk. Close your eyes. Duck and cover.
Now our schools are in a situation where they have to protect their students, and their students’ families, from their own government.
Keep your contact information current. Appoint someone to be your children’s guardian if you disappear. Don’t open the door or answer the phone.
This is appalling.
Utah’s political leaders, who have decades of experience calling out “federal overreach,” should now stand firm against the Trump administration’s xenophobic plans to move against such soft targets as schools, churches and medical facilities as part of its threatened mass deportation.
It is reassuring that the Utah Department of Public Safety has made it clear that its agents will participate, as they should, only in actions that target those suspected of serious crimes. That they are not pursuing people who are only guilty of civil violations such as entering the nation without permission or overstaying their visas.
Utah public officials should publicly oppose indiscriminate federal sweeps, protect the rights of those who live here peacefully and productively and join legal challenges to the administration’s most egregious actions.
Religious organizations, such as the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also need to stand ready to defend their centuries-old right to provide sanctuary.
The panic that is spreading is poisoning our communities and our nation. Families are afraid to send their children to school, and parents are reluctant to go to work, for fear that even citizens and legal residents may be swept up in a dragnet and separated from their loved ones.
School administrators in Utah and elsewhere have felt the need to reiterate the fact that all children, regardless of immigration status, are welcome in public schools. They are sending their students home with information informing families of their rights and responsibilities.
There are reports of agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lurking about schools. The image of heavily armed SWAT teams bursting into schools, taking away children as a way of getting to their parents, can only instill widespread panic, even among children who are not themselves a target.
Even leaders of Indigenous nations, who are more American than American, are warning their members to never travel without their ID documents.
Utah politicians are fond of standing up to the federal government. Here’s a chance for their skill to be put to good use.
