For San Diego students, a parent’s ICE arrest can be a ‘trauma.’ Schools are stepping in 

It was student council election day at Perkins K-8 School in Barrio Logan. Eager middle schoolers cast their votes in the office while outside, preschoolers as young as 3 years old bounced around the asphalt playground.

Moises Villalpando, dean of students, stood at the school’s entrance gate, welcoming families with a “good morning” or “buenos días” before the first bell rang. The start of the school year felt as good as any in Villalpando’s more than two decades at Perkins, which for years has enrolled newly arrived migrant students.

But the scene that August morning belied a more serious concern for some families.

“Even if we don’t see ICE, we feel the presence of ICE,” Villalpando said. Since June, immigration officials have arrested at least five parents near San Diego County schools, according to news reports. The arrests did not happen on school grounds, but occurred during morning drop-off or afternoon pick-up and sometimes in front of children.

Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have refuted that it targets parents or schools and noted that it has not conducted any “targeted enforcement actions” on school grounds. 

Patrick Divver, director of ICE enforcement and removal operations in San Diego, said in a statement through a spokesperson that the agency makes arrests near schools when “operational necessity dictates or when individuals targeted are located in those areas.”

“ICE San Diego will not allow proximity to schools or other sensitive locations to shield individuals from accountability for violating U.S. immigration laws nor will ICE San Diego compromise its mission by allowing individuals to exploit sensitive locations as a means to evade lawful enforcement,” Divver said. 

But the arrests do come months after the Trump administration rolled back a policy under then-President Joe Biden which limited immigration enforcement at schools and other sensitive locations.While ICE has not made arrests on school property, the arrests near the campuses have inflamed fears among immigrant communities. 

The incidents have followed similar patterns: A mother or father stopped, detained and taken away; videos of the arrest captured by bystanders circle social media; then an email announcement from school administrators to parents, all with the same message: Schools are safe places for kids. 

Several school districts across the county have issued policies directing staff not to provide information to ICE or allow officials on school campuses without a warrant. Yet as much as school administrators have fought to assuage parents’ concerns, the real risk for families subject to immigration enforcement may be where schools have much less power. 

“I cannot guarantee their safety out in the community,” said Fernando Hernandez, the principal at Perkins who has worked there for three decades now. “If a parent is walking from five blocks away, I don’t have the power or the authority to guarantee that they will not be stopped.” 

In San Diego County, more than 56,000 kids have at least one parent who is at risk of deportation. Studies show kids of parents who have been deported from the U.S. face greater health and developmental challenges. 

Amid the increasing immigration enforcement, more schools are confronting how to help impacted students both on and off campus. 

At Oceanside Unified, officials expanded the district’s immigration enforcement response team by adding more social workers who can assist students and families. Last month, immigrant advocacy groups organized community patrols outside Lincoln High School in southeast San Diego to ensure students and parents arrived safely. 

Staff at Perkins have adopted a similar practice. On a recent afternoon, Villalpando strolled the sidewalk surrounding the school as parents and other family members waited outside in the minutes before the last school bell rang. 

Ana Sanchez was waiting for her three grandchildren that day. She said her grandchildren see the news about ICE on TV and that they’re afraid to go to school. But Sanchez, whose own children went to Perkins, too, said her grandkids are safe when they’re there. 

“They take good care of the children,” Sanchez said. 

Shifting challenges for Perkins students

The president’s mission to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history comes after record unlawful migration to the U.S. under the Biden administration. Officials in 2023 reported more than 2 million encounters at the southern border in two consecutive years, a trend that Trump has pointed to in his claims of an “invasion” at the southern border and threats to public safety. 

Many of those who arrived in the U.S. were families with children from Central and South American countries, as well as Cuba, Haiti, and others. That record period of migration also meant new students entering San Diego schools including Perkins and in some cases significantly boosting enrollment. 

While the influx of students presented some challenges — they spoke a wide variety of languages and often carried traumatic experiences from their home countries or journeys to the U.S. — state funding helped schools develop new programs and classes. 

Now, Hernandez has noticed some migrant families, particularly from Venezuela, have left the school since last year. Among those who are still enrolled, some parents fearing an ICE encounter on the way to or from school have chosen to keep their kids at home, he said. 

Perkins so far hasn’t reported any ICE arrests of parents near campus. But off campus, Hernandez said, several students at Perkins have had a parent or both parents detained by ICE, which is traumatizing for the child. 

“Their parent is their whole security,” he said.

In the statement, Divver said ICE targets people who pose “serious threats” to public safety and national and border security, including those with criminal convictions or pending charges. 

But an inewsource analysis of ICE arrest data found that between May and the beginning of June, when numbers surged, about seven of every 10 people arrested had no criminal record, only immigration violations. 

Oceanside district creates immigration response team 

Across the county in Oceanside, the school district’s immigration response team, now expanded to seven bilingual social workers, has responded to “three significant incidents” over the past five months, Jordy Sparks, executive director of diversity, equity and exclusion and student supports at the district, told inewsource.

The team visits the homes of students whose family members have been arrested or detained by ICE and offer services, including counseling, transportation, financial support and legal immigration resources. They can also connect families with grief groups at the school or elsewhere in the community, which could include individuals who may be experiencing a similar situation. 

The team participates in prevention and awareness work, too, by hosting know-your-rights forums, providing school site training and working on preparedness plans with families. 

“It’s all about being trauma responsive, but also addressing any barriers that might be in place,” Sparks said.

Recent immigration arrests in Oceanside have rocked the community and made national news in one case. 

In June, ICE arrested a father after returning home from dropping off his child at school with his wife, Voice of San Diego reported. Later that month, officials raided an Oceanside home where they handcuffed two U.S. citizen children before arresting and taking away the children’s parents, KPBS reported.

“It was something very, something hard for me to process,” said Kevin Robles, the 17-year-old handcuffed in the incident alongside his 14-year-old sister, in an interview with KPBS. “Both of my parents were taken, and I didn’t even get to say bye, not even one word. All they said was ‘I love you.’”