California schools would be off-limits to ICE agents under new proposal
SACRAMENTO — Could California schools become off-limits to all federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents? That is a new proposal in response to fears of arrests for deportation as President-elect Donald Trump's Inauguration Day nears.
Now the California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is proposing a statewide policy that school districts not cooperate with ICE.
"We don't want kids going to school being fearful that they may come home and their parents aren't there anymore," Thurmond said.
Thurmond is sponsoring a bill that would prevent ICE agents on school campuses or even within a mile of a school campus without a warrant from a judge.
"Because we know that sometimes ICE might be laying in wait, and that's enough by itself can suppress people coming to school," Thurmond said.
Jose Rodriguez is president and CEO of El Concilio California, an organization that helps immigrant communities know their rights.
"We as an organization have been receiving telephone calls from folks who are concerned about whether they should be sending their children to school because of the president-elect's threats to deport entire families," Rodriguez said.
Trump has called for mass deportations and said he would be for deporting families of mixed immigration status to keep them together. He has also said undocumented immigrants with criminal records will be the first to be deported.
Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Corona) is opposed to the potential statewide school ban.
"There's been no indication that the Trump administration is going to do roundups at the public schools. What they've talked about and what the American people have said they want is to prioritize the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants," Essayli said.
There is no timeline for how soon lawmakers could vote on the legislation.