A leader of a local after-school program said some of his students have already been missing class since immigration enforcement ramped up earlier this year.
NEW ORLEANS — With the upcoming arrival of Border Patrol agents in New Orleans, some education advocates are worried attendance, enrollment, and school performance could decline. They say the problem has already been worsening since immigration enforcement ramped up earlier this year.
“The words literally are, ‘I am scared of leaving my house,’” said Eduardo Gonzalez, Program Director of LUNA, a local organization that works with Latino youth.
“My students directly come up to me and told me, ‘Mr. Eduardo… my parents are very nervous for me to come to school, I’m not sure if I want to continue my education,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
Legally, it is now easier for ICE and CBP agents to enter school campuses. Under old guidelines, they could only do it with approval from their agency’s headquarters or under specific circumstances, such an immediate threat to public safety.
A memo from the Department of Homeland Security rescinded those guidelines in January of this year. In September, the DHS issued a press release which said, in part, that “ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools.”
But advocates say families are not just worried about campuses themselves. Drop-off and pick-up lines, bus stops, and after-school programs are all seen as vulnerable locations.
“The rule that houses have is just like, ‘school, home, school,’ and that’s it, it’s very limited,” said Gonzalez.
He added that his organization has also started losing program leaders for the same reason. He described a text he received recently from someone who led mental health workshops, in which she told him “I see stuff going around my neighborhood… I just want to be the most cautious as I can, and I don’t feel comfortable being outside.”
WWL Louisiana reached out to local school districts for their take on the concerns.
A spokesperson for the St. Tammany Parish School System said there has not been a drop in attendance amid heightened immigration enforcement.
A Jefferson Parish Schools spokesperson directed questions to a policy sheet, which directs school leaders in the parish to, among other steps, alert the district’s legal counsel if ICE or CBP agents show up on campus.
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