U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents who recently attempted to enter two Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools falsely told school staff they had permission from the students' families to speak with them, according to two U.S. senators who spoke with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials following the incidents.
"When we spoke, we informed you that reports indicated that, while attempting to enter the schools, HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] officers falsely told school staff that they received permission from the families to speak with their children," said Sens. Alex Padilla, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Border Security and Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff in an April 18 letter to Robert Hammer, HSI acting executive associate director.
"You informed us that you were unfamiliar with those details and would look into the matter," the Democrats from California wrote. "We would like to understand what steps you are taking to review and address your agents’ conduct, including determining why they said they received permission to speak with children from their families when that was not the case."
Both Padilla and Schiff have publicly expressed outrage at the April 7 ICE activity on LAUSD school grounds.
Their letter was sparked by immigration enforcement agents' attempts to enter LAUSD’s Russell Elementary School and Lillian Street Elementary School. The agents were turned away after administrators checked with district leadership and legal counsel. DHS said the officers left “without incident” after school leaders refused to share information on the children without a court order or warrant.
“This had nothing to do with immigration enforcement,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, in a statement to K-12 Dive on April 11. McLaughlin said the check was to ensure the children "who arrived unaccompanied at the border … are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked.”
The senators’ letter said ICE’s attempted “welfare checks” were directed at children in grades 1-6. The agents attempted to locate the children during the school day without a warrant, and "apparently without contacting or coordinating in advance with the schools, parents or guardians, or state or local child welfare agencies," Padilla and Schiff wrote after meeting with HSI, which is a branch of ICE.
“Though the agents were purportedly there to conduct a ‘welfare check’ on the children, their actions instead terrorized hundreds of thousands of students across Los Angeles and undermine public trust," they wrote.
The senators asked the agency to respond to their questions about the incident by May 2. They further asked for an end to "any efforts to conduct 'welfare checks' on school premises" and assurance that ICE agents would not visit or enter schools without a warrant.
The incidents are the first known attempts of ICE to enter school grounds after a change in DHS policy under the Trump administration allowing immigration raids in schools. Under previous DHS policy, schools and other areas like hospitals and churches were considered off-limits. That changed a day after Trump's inauguration and, since then, school leaders have reported increased anxiety from affected students over the policy change.
According to a lawsuit filed by Denver Public Schools in February, the DHS change led to attendance dropping "noticeably" across all its schools and is hurting the district's ability to provide education and vital services to children who the district says are missing school out of fear. That case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, with a pre-trial meeting set for April 30.
