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A bitterly cold Tuesday that saw both Evanston Township High School and District 65 shift to remote learning because of the dangerous temperatures ended quietly, and without the news that many are fearing of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arriving in Chicago to conduct mass deportations.
The threat, though, remains very real for this community. After his inauguration on Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that raids are still planned: “I don’t want to say when, but it’s going to happen.”
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times both reported over the weekend that between 100 and 200 ICE officers were scheduled to patrol Chicago starting this week.
Facing this backdrop on both Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the day of the inauguration, District 65 Superintendent Angel Turner sent a note to families reaffirming the district’s commitment to protecting its students and staff regardless of their immigration or citizenship status.
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“In 2017, our Board passed a resolution which declared D65 a Safe Haven School District,” Turner wrote. “This resolution will continue to serve as a guidepost ensuring that our schools remain safe and welcoming places for all children and families, regardless of immigration status.”
Elaborating on that resolution, Turner provided the following details about the policy’s impact on the operations of District 65:
- “All schools are considered safe havens for students and families threatened by immigration enforcement, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
- “Students and families will not be asked by school officials to provide their immigration status or asked to produce any documentation regarding their status.
- “District 65 will not disclose to any person or entity any information about a student under the protection of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or the Illinois Student Records Act.
- “The District will not disclose student information to immigration agents except in the extremely limited circumstance where a lawful judicial warrant is presented.
- “Per the Resolution, the Superintendent will review all warrants related to immigration enforcement.
- “Entry will not be granted for administrative warrants.
- “Entry will only be allowable in the case of judicial warrants, signed by a judge, and appropriate measures in place to ensure student safety.
- “All school residency determinations will be made without regard to immigration status.”
District 65’s policy also works in tandem with Evanston’s Welcoming City Ordinance, which provides many of the same safeguards for working with city employees and local law enforcement.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” condemned the news of potential Chicago-area raids as a “leak” and said he was reconsidering the timeline.
More than 50,000 migrants, predominately from Central and South America, have arrived in the Chicago area since August 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing people seeking asylum in the United States from the border with Mexico to big cities, such as New York and Chicago, around the country.
A spokesperson for the Evanston Police Department said EPD has no knowledge of any planned raids or their potential effect on the city, nor have any outside agencies reached out to EPD to provide guidance or ask for assistance at this point.
Notably, the Department of Homeland Security on Monday ended a Biden administration directive limiting ICE activity in “sensitive” locations like churches and schools.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
The Trump administration has said it plans to target undocumented immigrants with a criminal history, but it is unclear if that policy would reach as far as individuals with minor law violations, like traffic infractions.
“Immigration enforcement guidance is being finalized to help our staff understand expectations and how to support our students. And, students will be encouraged to speak with a trusted adult within the school if they are feeling unsafe,” Turner said in her Monday email to the District 65 community. “Our schools are and will remain welcoming places for all.”
District 65 affirms schools as ‘welcoming places for all’ amid deportation threats is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.