Immigration Arrests At School?

There's an ugly new twist to Trump's ugly immigration policy, which seems to aimed at getting the maximum number of brown-skinned people out of the country (well, unless they work for one of Trump's billionaire buddies).

It was always going to be awful for children, once the administration decided that breaking up families was on the table, which makes sense-- if he wants to get rid of birthright citizenship, why not put pressure on birthright citizens to leave. I'm seeing teachers talk about new district policies--what if a student gets home from school and discovers that their parents have been deported? Families and school authorities are scrambling to deal with the various possible ugly outcomes of a deliberately cruel policy, meant to be so awful that not only will brown-skinned people get out, but they will not bother to come here at all.

But Tuesday, the administration found a way to make things worse. Historically, authorities have recognized the idea that certain locations are sensitive and protected-- schools, churches, and hospitals.

Well, screw that, says the Trump team. The sensitive location policy has been rescinded. Says a statement from Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest." 

You can mock this statement by pointing out that very few criminals in this country have successfully evaded the police by hiding in third grade classrooms, but that would miss the point that to this administration, every undocumented immigrant is a criminal. 

Soi now, on top of every other weight thrown on public schools, districts are now having to figure out how to respond when they are the target of an immigration raid. And that as Trump's Department of Justice plans to go after any state or local officials who get in the way of deportations. Makes you wonder who will be the first building principal of classroom teacher to get thrown in jail for trying to obstruct an attempt to drag a seven year old child out of school for deportation. 

In the meantime, the amount of stress and worry piling on the backs of children will be one more obstacle to learning. And the threat of turning school into a very unsafe space will be one more obstacle to attendance.

And as we move forward, it's worth looking at this Congressional testimony from David Bier, from the Very Libertarian Cato Institute, explaining in some detail just how disastrous Trump policies were on immigration the first time around. That's Trump policy for you-- mean, cruel, and ineffective. It solves nothing, and yet, children are going to suffer because of it.