This Back-to-School Season, Teachers and Parents Are Fighting Back Against ICE

The Trump administration is on the defensive as educators demand action to protect students from immigration police. 

As litigation over the administration’s crackdown continues, advocates say immigrants — and people who are perceived as immigrants — are at risk of being disappeared into remote immigration jails without due process, as viral videos of masked agents making violent arrests fuel fears. 

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus announced a new “Learning Without Fear” campaign on September 9, an effort to call attention to drops in school registration and attendance “caused by fear of irresponsible federal immigration enforcement.” 

The caucus announced the campaign on social media but did not elaborate on what it would accomplish. Research shows that anxiety and fear around immigration status fuels disparities in academic achievement among students who are undocumented or live with undocumented family members.