Perspective | From celebration to crisis, the impacts of aggressive immigration enforcement for our children

In the fall of 2024, a North Carolina educator’s public school hosted its third annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration. Hundreds of students and their families joined together to celebrate culture and identity. Excited students practiced performances for months in advance. Families sent pictures of their loved ones long passed to add to the school’s altar that was set to be on display. The whole month was used to celebrate the achievements of Hispanics, all in preparation for the celebration. From their homemade decorations to the intricate cultural dances, the celebration brought the whole community together.

This gathering was years in the making, supported by the collective commitment of the educator, school leadership, and families in their school community. By day, the educator would design and lead compelling lessons for her multilingual students. By night, she would seek ways to build connections with her students’ families, ensuring they felt welcome at school. The educator would advocate for her students and their families, as well as others throughout the district, to ensure that they had access to top-quality learning experiences and opportunities.

Together, they built a partnership that showed results: The educator’s students thrived in her classes, taking risks with language and growing academically. They had strong attendance records. Their parents and caregivers were highly engaged with school meetings and events. In short, the educator and her school were building a thriving school culture for students that propelled them academically and socially. 

Just one year later, these students face a striking new reality. The eagerly anticipated Hispanic Heritage Celebration was canceled, as were many gatherings of the Hispanic community due to fear of immigration raids across the United States. Lessons in the educator’s class have been placed on hold as she must instead address the acute mental health needs of her students. The educator herself feels that she can no longer safely speak on behalf of her students and their families, as she may put herself or her own family at risk.

This week, due to reports of ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and raids in North Carolina, the educator has seen the most acute impact yet: during a school day when in a class she would typically see seven students, she instead only saw two. This was not unique to her school. CNN has reported that 15% of students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools were absent from school on Monday. That’s more than 20,000 students. 

Resources for educators following Trump’s new policies on ICE, immigration

Beyond school attendance

Across the state, the presence of ICE and the very real threat of detention and deportation of family, neighbors, and community members is impacting North Carolina’s children in many ways. 

A high school student is experiencing panic attacks daily before school, afraid that his mom will be detained when she drops him off in the morning. This week, she asked a friend to drive him to school instead so that she doesn’t have to leave the house.

One district has planned workshops for Spanish-speaking families to access the new student information system and view grades, attendance, and other critical academic information. The families who requested these training sessions, fearing exposure, are instead choosing not to attend.

Another district has trained their staff to respond in multiple scenarios that would threaten the safety of their students due to the presence of ICE. One of these scenarios includes initiating a “Perimeter Lockdown,” meant to protect students and staff from threats of violence or physical harm.

An elementary school had 87 students absent in one day. That accounts for about 20% of their entire student population.

A teacher shared that many of their third graders spent their mornings on Monday and Tuesday staring out the classroom window, wondering when federal agents might show up and take them away. 

What does this mean for North Carolina’s students?

Since 1982, all students — regardless of their immigration status — have been guaranteed the right to enroll in public schools in the United States. Additional federal requirements for states ensure that multilingual learners have equal access to a high-quality education. 

Public schools welcome and serve all children, and nothing has changed regarding who has legal access to enroll or attend. However, the recent actions of ICE and CBP in North Carolina contribute to an atmosphere of intense fear and uncertainty for families, leading many to keep students at home rather than send them to school. 

Parent requests for online learning opportunities for their students during this time when they don’t feel safe sending their children to school show just how important education is to students and families.

Research shows that deportation efforts add to absenteeism crises that schools are experiencing; recent findings suggest that ICE activity and raids can harm student achievement and disrupt how schools function, even when they do not occur on or near school grounds. 

We are now seeing this play out in real time in North Carolina.

Parents who sought increased involvement with their child’s academics no longer feel safe attending workshops. Young children can’t focus on learning to read and write. Students who previously were preparing for college applications are instead planning a safe way to get to class. 

In schools across the country, children — regardless of immigration status — are carrying the emotional weight of chronic fear and a heightened threat that someone they love could disappear.

The message they’re receiving is devastatingly clear: being brown can make you a target.

These experiences are shaping educational, developmental, and mental-health trajectories across entire communities.

Organizations, like LatinxEd, are providing resources for students, families, and educators.

But if we care about all children, then we also must confront the policies and politics that harm them and invest in the systems of care that help them heal.

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