CHICAGO (WLS) — Concerns about immigration raids are already impacting school attendance in some areas of Illinois, and the state superintendent of schools said he’s concerned.
This comes as Governor JB Pritzker is suggesting planned raids in Illinois could be political payback.
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The fear of mass deportations has had a chilling impact on many communities with large Latino populations. Now, it’s hitting home in schools.
State Superintendent of Schools Tony Sanders met Friday with district leaders from Aurora and Elgin.
“So, I’ve been in many schools this last week and I’ve talked to many superintendents that have seen a decline in attendance this week, especially among our Latino population who are fearful of sending their child to school,” Sanders said. “They’re hunkering back at home. They’re not separating as a family.”
Sanders this week issued a directive to schools across the state with reminders about protections afforded students regardless of their immigration status and how to prepare if ICE agents show up. The empty desks are a big concern.
“Kids that are not in school will not learn,” Sanders said. “And you know, post the pandemic, we’ve seen already a decline in attendance. We don’t need to see a further decline in student attendance based on based on threats and fears.”
Governor Pritzker, after touring an early childhood learning center, is wondering if the areas the Trump administration is or has promised will be targeted for deportations could be politically motivated.
“If he is somehow holding a grudge against people who didn’t vote for him, whether they’re politicians or a state that didn’t vote for him, that’s wrong,” Pritzker said.
Some Trump supporters are cheering the deportations that have already started.
“I think it’s a great thing, and President Trump said he did it, and the people overwhelmingly voted for President Trump, and he’s fulfilling a promise that he made that to the American people and I think it’s great,” Homer Township Supervisor Steve Balich said.
READ MORE | City of Chicago launches ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign with CTA amid fears of immigration raids
ABC7 asked the governor if people should be surprised that President Trump us doing what he said he would do.
“Should we be surprised? Well, yeah, because if he fulfills a promise, I’m surprised,” Pritzker said. “And when he doesn’t fulfill a promise, I guess I’m not surprised. But you’re also like, what do I trust? What can I trust that comes out of his mouth.”
The governor said people who are undocumented and commit violent crimes should be removed, but those who have been here for years and are just going about their lives should be protected. At this point, it’s not clear if they will be.
Full CPD statement:
“In accordance with the City of Chicago’s Municipal Code, which includes the Welcoming City Ordinance, the Chicago Police Department does not assist federal immigration authorities with enforcement action solely based on immigration status. Additionally, CPD does not document immigration status and does not share such information with federal authorities.
CPD is prohibited by the Welcoming City Ordinance from participating in civil immigration enforcement operations or assist in the civil enforcement of federal immigration law. CPD’s Responding to Incidents Involving Citizenship Status policy also states that if the Department receives a request from an immigration agency to provide assistance with a civil immigration enforcement operation, a supervisor will respond to the scene. If the request is to assist in the enforcement of civil immigration law, the supervisor will decline the request. If the request is unrelated to civil immigration law, appropriate police action will be taken. The Responding to Incidents Involving Citizenship Status policy was recently revised to require a supervisor of higher rank (a Watch Operations Lieutenant or Street Deputy) respond to the scenes of these requests, in addition to the previously required supervisor from the district of occurrence.
To be clear, the Chicago Police Department will not assist or intervene in civil immigration enforcement in accordance with the City of Chicago Municipal Code. As always, we will continue to enforce the law if a crime occurs, regardless of the citizenship status of those involved.”
Full CPS statement:
“Chicago Public Schools remains committed to protecting the rights of all students to a free public education, regardless of their immigration status or the immigration status of their family. While the District understands there is an executive order to rescind language about “sensitive locations,” including schools, and ICE arrests, CPS does not plan to share private student-level information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) except in the rare case where there is a court order or consent from a parent or guardian. We remain committed to ensuring that our schools remain the safest places for all students and that the focus remains on providing a high quality pre-K-12 education.”
Full CTU statement:
“Today, the Chicago Public Schools are staring down a real threat. According to reporting from various sources, our newly-minted U.S. President has decided to make the City of Chicago the opening scene for his mass deportation horror film -an attempt to use the power of the White House to rip apart families, disrupt communities and potentially try to violate the safest places in our neighborhoods, public schools.
Here is the reality: Donald Trump told everyone who he would be when he returned to the White House. Anyone in a leadership position not doing everything in their power to prepare and respond is doing a disservice to the communities they serve. This reality should cause our CEO, Pedro Martinez, to get busy ensuring that our city’s public schools are safe for our vulnerable immigrant students, parents and educators and taking action to safeguard Black history, gender equality, the recruitment of Black teachers, and the other pieces of Chicago’s education system that we know are in the crosshairs of this new administration.
A couple of years ago, the CTU fought for and won sanctuary policies at CPS to make sure our students can learn in a safe environment regardless of their immigration status. Because of our last contract, there are protocols to prevent ICE officers from having free access to our school buildings, to activate legal responses, and to protect our students’ rights-we need our CEO to enforce our contract with implementation and training protocols that help keep our students and their families safe.
CPS has sent out an email on the topic but has not provided training to our members. We are concerned that CPS and CEO Pedro Martinez have violated our agreement to conduct joint training to address these circumstances. Section 46.7.6 of our agreement requires CPS to collaborate with CTU to design and implement district-wide training, beginning in 2019, to protect school communities from unauthorized ICE agent entry into school buildings. Unfortunately, despite our requests and efforts, this need has not been met and we have sent recent communications to the CEO to comply with CPS’ contractual commitments.
Despite not receiving training from the district, we are preparing our members to create ‘sanctuary teams’ and working in each school to ensure educators know what to do in case of a raid and are prepared to protect our students and their rights. Students should know that one of the safest places they can be is at their school.”
And that is why we will continue to push our CEO to work with us to ensure that our schools are safe and welcoming places for all of our students. Sanctuary and safety includes fully staffing our schools with guidance counselors, social workers, librarians and a high-quality school day, one that will bring joy, affirmation, and academic success.”
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