Sacramento City Unified reminds families it's a safe haven school district in response to ICE raids
SACRAMENTO – The Sacramento City Unified School District is calling itself a safe haven school district that is pledging to protect its students from unlawful Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, raids on school campuses.
It has been a worry for many illegal immigrant families since the federal government reversed its "sensitive locations" policy which made it legal for immigration enforcement to happen at schools, churches and hospitals.
Sacramento City's safe haven policy is nothing new, but a reminder of what rights ICE has if it tries to come on campus.
"Our children have been crying," said Nora Barraza, who has three children in SCUSD schools. "They don't want to go to school. Their academic achievement has gone down."
SCUSD Board of Education President Jasjit Singh said the district is standing strong on its safe haven school policies that say that immigration enforcement is not allowed on its school campuses without a valid court order.
"Please send your children to school. despite the anxiety and fear being pushed upon you, know this is a safe place," Singh said.
CBS13 asked the district about the plan it has in place if ICE shows up on campus.
"Their job is to present a valid warrant," Singh said. "That valid warrant needs to be checked and processed by our legal staff."
An attorney told CBS13 that if ICE has a valid arrest warrant, they can take you immediately, but you never have to speak and you have the right to an attorney.
"We haven't gotten any indication that things are happening, but even if they were it's very clear we aren't going to get a heads up," Singh said.
SCUSD leaders said they won't make it easy and are committed to creating more rules and documentation if ICE shows up, even with a warrant from a judge.
"It's not that they come on campus and get to do the whole look at our vests and look at us patrolling around campus," Singh said.
SCUSD is asking families to update their emergency cards in case a child's family is detained while they are at school.
Chief of Staff for the Department of Education David Schapira said California is one of six states that funds schools based on attendance.
"So, what that means is when students feel unsafe on campus or parents feel unsafe sending their kids to campuses, the result of that is a negative impact on all students because that school loses funding and that lack of funding impacts every child," Schapira said.
He commended SCUSD's policy and called on all California schools to implement the same kind of policy to protect students.
"It is important to know that California has a law that permits California school districts to prohibit immigration enforcement officials from being on school campuses and enforcing immigration laws in a way that make our students feel unsafe," Schapira said.
He said Senate Bill 48, which will be in this legislative session, would prohibit school officials from allowing immigration enforcement officials on their campuses without a court order.
"It's very hard, but we need to give our kids that peace of mind. One way or another we need to find that way to give them that peace of mind," Barraza said.