Rapidly changing immigration policies have been a source of worry for many immigrant families in FCPS. The district is working to make its schools as safe as possible for immigrant students and reduce concern for families.

On Jan. 25, superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid reached out to the FCPS community regarding changes in immigration policy. While no new FCPS guidelines were introduced, Reid reinforced several existing policies dedicated to protecting students, and emphasized it was safe for students to keep attending school. Among these is FCPS’ Trust Policy, which prohibits the district from gathering data on students’ immigration status. Reid also met with school administrators for the same reasons, and to provide guidance regarding immigrant students.

“The Superintendent has had meetings with school administration across the entire division to refresh and go over what the existing policies are,” School Board member-at-large Kyle McDaniel said. “From what I’m told, nothing has changed in response to this administration, but what she’s done is a refresher course, training, so to speak.”

The U.S. government protects immigrants through laws and other federal measures, and has done so for a long time. These include the 14th Amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship, and Plyler v. Doe, a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed undocumented children had the right to a public education. Recent government actions undermine federal protections, however, including some which contradict existing laws.

“There are a lot of things in [Trump’s] immigration policy, such as ICE raids and even his plan on denaturalizing and taking out birthright citizenship, which cannot be done because of the 14th Amendment,” senior Tejaswini Vutukuri said.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling that executive orders must comply with the Constitution, Executive Order 14160, titled “Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship,” seeks to end birthright citizenship and contradicts the 14th Amendment. This, along with Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan immigrants, has been blocked by federal judges.

Considering the various updates rolled out since January, there are many new changes that can worry immigrant families. Because of this, immigrant students may come to school less often.

“What we have seen is a reduced student attendance in areas where we know there are more immigrant students,” School Board member-at-large Ryan McElveen said. “We want students to feel safe, to come to school, and we will support them in any way.”

Another federal protection was the Sensitive Location Policy, which prevented excessive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in schools, churches and similar locations. The current administration revoked the Sensitive Location Policy in January, resulting in several lawsuits and decreasing schools’ protection from immigration enforcement. Still, legal protections, such as the Fourth Amendment that prevents searches without a warrant, exist for schools, giving them some jurisdiction when approached by immigration officials.

“We’re not law enforcement authorities; we’re not legal counsel for our students or staff members either,” School Board member-at-large Ilryong Moon said. “But I think there are enough legal protections already offered to our students and employees in case of anyone approaching them.”

FCPS has multiple safeguards in place to prevent unprompted searches or raids, including redirecting potential immigration agents to district administration. Immigration agents would need to present a warrant to school administration if they wished to enter a school.

“Administrators would first have to verify the identity of the person and ensure the documents they are producing, whether a warrant or a judge’s order, are valid,” McElveen said. “So any time anything like this happens, they would have to call back to central administration just to verify everything.” 

Even after this information is verified, immigration officials are still not allowed to search the school as they please. According to McElveen, they would be restricted to waiting in the main office.

“If the documents they produce are indeed real, they would be permitted only into the front office,” McElveen said. “They wouldn’t be allowed to go into the school, and they wouldn’t be allowed to retrieve students directly.”

FCPS does not have the same level of power at bus stops. While the district has no legal jurisdiction at bus stops, it does enforce similar policies when students are physically inside buses.

“Just as principals and teachers have been trained, so have bus drivers.” McElveen said. 

FCPS is home to over 180,000 students with origins all over the world, a large number of whom are not yet citizens. As such, thousands of students in the district can be affected by an update in immigration policy, and the district is working to closely monitor the situation.

“It seems like with this administration, everything changes almost by the hour, in many respects, so the superintendent and her staff are staying on top of that,” McDaniel said.

FCPS has not passed a new policy regarding immigration. According to several School Board members, there was no significant disagreement over how FCPS would approach the situation– it would reinforce policies that already exist.

“We have not changed any practices from prior to this administration to now,” McDaniel said. “Our operating policies and our desire to make sure that all students are safe and welcome has not changed, and it’s not going to change.”