New York City teachers, students, parents and elected officials rallied in Lower Manhattan on June 4, demanding that the city’s Department of Education write formal protocols for what schools should do if immigration agents show up at their doors. Their central claim, first reported by amNewYork: ICE agents have been spotted near schools during morning drop-off, and no one working inside those schools knows how to respond.
The most specific account came from Julia Garland, an elementary school teacher in Sunset Park. Garland said ICE agents have been repeatedly seen driving past several schools in her neighborhood between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., the window when parents are walking kids to class.
“It was scary. Parents were walking their children into school, knowing ICE was right there. In some cases, they had to walk right next to the confirmed ICE vehicles with ICE agents sitting in them, and no staff at the schools knew what to do,” Garland said. “They usually target adult men who are alone, so if you are a loving father walking your child to school after you drop them off, you are in real danger.”
Teachers at the rally want a plan, not money: a firm, written set of steps to follow if a student or staff member is confronted by federal immigration enforcement on or near school grounds.
“We have also heard from teachers in other communities across the city that there have been ICE spottings outside the school, across the street, around the corner, down the block, and educators have wondered what to do when teachers and kids are in schools,” said Katie Kurjakovic of the United Federation of Teachers. “School is all they should have to think about. They should not have to worry and be afraid of what’s going to be on the other side of the door when they leave school.”
Brooklyn City Council Member Alexa Avilés said 37 percent of New York City residents are immigrants, which puts a large share of the population at risk during daily routines like walking kids to school.
“We could do the math and conjecture that the majority of public school students are impacted by what is happening here, and these egregious, abhorrent policies. It is traumatizing for the students and their families to watch community members, family members, be brutalized, dehumanized, and kidnapped in plain sight,” Avilés said. “It is also traumatizing for the students to watch each other suffer, to watch each other disappear, to live in fear of the violence that is confronting them. This sickens me to my core.”
The rally, held near the Department of Education’s offices, ended with the group delivering a petition carrying more than 2,200 signatures to a representative from the Schools Chancellor’s office. The signers want the city’s existing protocols updated.
amNewYork reported that it reached out to the schools chancellor’s office and was awaiting a response.
The demand comes amid a broader fight between New York City schools and the federal government. In September, the Trump administration canceled $47 million in federal Magnet School Assistance Program funds for the city after it missed a deadline to change its policies on transgender students, Brooklyn Paper reported. The city sued and, on November 20, reached a court agreement letting it use about $12 million in leftover funds while the rest of the dispute plays out.
