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Citing a “misunderstanding” and pointing to group fears, Chicago Public Faculties officers conceded Friday night time that they have been mistaken in reporting that federal immigration brokers had proven up that morning at a predominantly Latino elementary faculty.
Two federal brokers who got here to Hamline Elementary within the metropolis’s Again of the Yards neighborhood have been actually U.S. Secret Service brokers, the company and district confirmed.
The worry, confusion, and conflicting accounts could possibly be a preview of what’s to return within the weeks forward at faculties with giant immigrant populations now that longstanding protections are gone.
The second Trump administration has moved swiftly to comply with via on marketing campaign guarantees to crack down on immigration, placing communities on edge and faculty officers on alert.
Earlier this week, the administration cleared the best way for immigration enforcement at or close to faculties, church buildings, and different “delicate” places which have been thought of off-limits for years.
On Friday afternoon, Chicago Public Faculties officers informed the media that workers on the elementary faculty had adopted district protocol and blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers from coming into the college at about 11:15 a.m. CPS chief training officer Bogdana Chkoumbova mentioned faculty workers contacted CPS’s authorized and safety departments and didn’t enable the brokers to talk to college students or workers.
District coverage is to not enable ICE into faculties except brokers current a felony judicial warrant signed by a federal decide.
“We is not going to open our doorways for ICE, and we’re right here to guard our youngsters and ensure they’ve entry to a superb training,” mentioned Natasha Ortega, the college principal.
That triggered a sequence of statements that painted a unique image of occasions.
Later within the afternoon, an ICE spokesman informed the Chicago Solar-Instances the company was not concerned. Then, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that it was Chicago-based Secret Service brokers investigating a risk towards “a authorities official we shield” who went to the college after first visiting a residence.
“Brokers recognized themselves to the college principal and offered enterprise playing cards with their contact data,” Guglielmi mentioned. “The brokers left with out incident. The Secret Service investigates all threats made towards these we shield, we don’t examine nor implement immigration legal guidelines.”
On Friday night time, CPS issued an announcement with its revised model of occasions: that two people arrived on the faculty door and “introduced identification that features the identify Division of Homeland Safety, the federal company that oversees ICE.”
The Secret Service can be housed below the homeland safety division.
CPS mentioned faculty officers responded to the brokers pondering they have been from ICE, “amid rumors and experiences that the company was locally,” and acted accordingly.
“Our authentic communication was a results of a misunderstanding, reflective of the worry and considerations locally amid the brand new administration’s concentrate on undocumented immigrants,” the district mentioned.
The district mentioned its response “demonstrates that our system, in partnership with group organizations, is ready and able to maintain our college students and workers protected.”
The morning’s occasions despatched ripples of worry via Hamline Elementary, a Ok-8 faculty that’s 92% Latino and the place greater than 68% of the scholar inhabitants are thought of English learners, a quantity that grew by 20% over the previous decade.
Because the information unfold via the college and the neighborhood, a handful of oldsters and guardians got here to the college within the frigid chilly; a few folks seemed to be taking their youngsters out of faculty early for the day.
One Hamline staffer, who requested anonymity, mentioned the college went right into a 30-minute lockdown through the incident. CPS officers didn’t instantly affirm the lockdown.
Rumors have been swirling all week that Chicago – a so-called sanctuary metropolis – can be the goal of elevated immigration enforcement within the wake of President Donald Trump taking workplace. Trump has already signed a sequence of govt orders aimed toward immigration, together with eliminating the “delicate location” coverage that required ICE to get approval to conduct arrests at or close to faculties and church buildings.
The Trump administration has additionally ordered the U.S. Division of Justice to analyze and presumably cost native officers who don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement. CPS doesn’t ask for or observe college students’ immigration standing, and late final 12 months the Board of Training authorized a decision reaffirming the district’s intention to guard immigrant college students.
Since final week, CPS has issued steerage to highschool workers and households about what to do if ICE brokers come to a campus constructing.
Earlier this week, district CEO Pedro Martinez informed Chalkbeat that households shouldn’t be afraid to ship their youngsters to highschool. Regardless of the reassurances, unfounded rumors of ICE raids at different Chicago faculties have circulated.
CPS reiterated it is not going to share pupil data with ICE, “besides within the uncommon case the place there’s a courtroom order or consent from a mother or father or guardian.”
Outdoors Hamline on Friday, Chicago Lecturers Union President Stacy Davis Gates informed reporters that the union has been engaged on initiatives and coaching since Trump’s first time period to assist workers find out about their rights associated to immigration.
“Faculties are for kids; faculties are open for kids,” she mentioned. “We’re gonna work our hardest to guarantee that our youngsters and their households know that they will come on this place with our members and really feel each supported and guarded – not simply bodily, however emotionally and mentally as properly.”
Gloria Marquez, a lifelong Again of the Yards resident and mom of two Hamline college students, got here to the college simply earlier than 1 p.m. after listening to about what was taking place. Marquez declined to take her youngsters out early and mentioned she wasn’t scared of immigration brokers. However she expressed anger on the considered immigration enforcement displaying up, saying that if somebody is “not a felony, then they don’t deserve to return” to their native nation.
Marquez mentioned the worry of elevated immigration enforcement has been palpable within the neighborhood. A neighborhood retailer she frequents was far emptier than typical on Friday. Persons are not strolling round “like they used to,” she mentioned.
Earlier this week, Marquez mentioned she obtained an e mail from the principal noting that the college’s attendance was about 60% on Wednesday and puzzled if mother and father have been hesitant to ship their youngsters to highschool. The lengthy weekend and chilly climate is also elements.
Reema Amin is a reporter masking Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
