Every weekday, an undocumented immigrant named Cassandra walks her kids to and from school in Orange County.
Now that walk is more fearful after President Donald Trump returned to office and signed a slew of executive orders in his first few days aimed at restricting immigrant rights.
“It is now always a risk to walk my children to school,” said the Santa Ana resident, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used because she fears deportation. “I could get caught walking my daughters to school or on the walk back home. But I do it because I know they will be safe at school.”
She’s like many other parents who worry about what would happen to their children’s education if they’re deported under Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration and vow to enact “mass deportations.”
Across Southern California, school officials and immigrant advocates are working to comfort parents in the wake of the policy shifts, which include a change that allows immigration officers to make arrests at schools and churches. They’re fielding parents’ questions on how to keep undocumented kids in school and safe. They’re offering resources such as “know your rights” cards. And, despite the political changes, they’re assuring parents they won’t be helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers come on campus to pick up children or parents.
In California, 93% of children who have one or more undocumented parents are U.S. citizens, according to the California Department of Education.
Cassandra is one of nearly 3 million undocumented people in California, with 34% of them having at least one child under 18, according to the Migration Policy Institute. People from Mexico and Central America make up most of the undocumented people in California at 77%, with immigrants from Asia being the second highest group, at 18%.
Fear and uncertainty took center stage this week at an immigration forum for parents and students in San Bernardino.
Many parents asked if schools would help ICE agents by telling them about undocumented students, what would happens to their children if they were deported and how to prepare kids for the possibility of losing their parent to their home country.
Mauricio Arellano, superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District, which co-sponsored the Wednesday, Jan. 22, event, told the crowd of about 50 that all children in the U.S. have a right to a free public education — regardless of immigration status.
“The status of their citizenship has nothing to do with anything in terms of enrolling in school,” Arellano said. “The law requires us to accept all school-aged children.”
He said the law also prevents schools from providing “private information,” unless faced with a legal document such as a warrant signed by a judge.
Cassandra said her school district has been supportive and shared immigration resources. She came to the U.S. from Mexico seven years ago in search of a safer place to raise her children and to find work to support her family.
“There are too many politics involved in children’s education,” Cassandra said. “My lack of documentation shouldn’t stop my children from getting the education they deserve.”
Trump pledged in a New York City rally before taking office that he’d “launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out” and vowed to “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”
He and others say that November’s election results show he has most Americans’ support on the issue.
Dave Everett, a political consultant in the Inland Empire, said the U.S. needs to enforce its immigration laws.
“If you study other countries, they have much harsher immigration initiatives, and even Mexico has stricter immigration laws than the United States,” Everett said. “Do I agree that we need to stick to the laws that we have in place just like every other country does? Yeah, I mean, I don’t see why we wouldn’t follow our own laws.”
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials laid out procedures for immigration officers requesting information on students, families and staff, according to a district spokesperson’s statement. It has started mandatory training for staff in how to respond if federal officers show up on or near campuses.
“The district has produced ‘know your rights’ cards to be distributed to students, with directions on how to respond if approached by immigration agents and has made resource guides available with additional resources,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Los Angeles school officials don’t collect or share information about the immigration status of students and their families, the statement added.
Santa Ana Unified School District administrators also are working to train employees how to respond should immigration officials arrive on campus. The district continues to offer resources and support for undocumented students and families, spokesperson Fermin Leal said.
Though there are worries since Trump’s inauguration, there has been no surge in concerns from parents, despite the city’s large population of undocumented residents, Leal said.
Those at the San Bernardino forum walked away with “know your rights” information in English and Spanish.
Such printable cards can be found on most immigration organizations’ websites. The recommendations typically tell people they don’t have to speak with immigration officers, they have the right to remain silent, they don’t have to open the door if immigration agents knock and they don’t have to sign anything without talking to a lawyer.
Though many Southern California educators worry about ICE pickups at schools and the possibility that such fears will keep children from school and increase absenteeism, one attorney calmed those concerns.
“The safest place to be is in school,” Russell Jauregui, a staff attorney for the San Bernardino Community Service Center, told kids at the forum.
In California, undocumented residents can go to college, attend Cal State campuses or community colleges, and even get state aid, as long as they went to a California high school for three years and meet any other aid requirements, Jauregui said.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday, Jan. 21, that it would end a policy in place since 2011 that kept federal immigration agencies from making arrests at safe spaces like schools, churches and hospitals, some forum panelists said California laws mean that won’t go into effect in the state.
“California is still a sanctuary state,” Hector Pereyra, a political manager from the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said. “SB54 is still in effect, and so we still have those protections.”
SB54, called the California Values Act, was enacted in 2018 and designated schools as safe spaces where federal immigration enforcement can’t take place.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued guidance this month that reinforced the Act’s protections in public education, Pereyra said.
Usually, federal law overrides state law, but the Trump administration sued California over SB54 in 2018 and lost.
“SB54 doesn’t prohibit the federal government from enforcing immigration law, it just says the state of California is not going to help them do their job,” Pereyra said. “This precedent is still the law of the land in terms of California’s sanctuary policies.”
The court found the Act is aligned with the Tenth Amendment, Pereyra said.
Bonta and immigration advocates pointed out that an ICE administrative warrant is not the same as one signed by a judge and can be issued by any authorized immigration officer. California law also prohibits state and local law enforcement officials from asking for one’s immigration status, according to the attorney general’s website.
The forum and other groups point out other suggestions for immigrants.
These include having child care affidavits that match school emergency contact records, carrying “know your rights” cards and having an immigration lawyer. Such an affidavit ensures children have a trusted guardian to temporarily care for them if a parent is detained or deported, avoiding chances of children being placed into child protective services.
While criminal law gives everyone the right to an attorney, immigration law doesn’t, Jauregui said.
Still, many immigration groups suggest that undocumented families seek an immigration lawyer, which can be found at a discount or for free from organizations such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the San Bernardino Community Service Center — which serves low-income families in the Inland Empire — and Camino Immigration Services in Orange County.
“We have four more years of this administration, but this administration also has four more years of us,” Pereyra said. “We’re going to continue to fight.”
Staff writer Arianna Clay contributed to this report.
