Bay Area school official prepares for potential ICE presence near schools
ICE agents will be allowed to conduct raids in areas such as schools under President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown. Many Bay Area school districts serve undocumented students, and their officials are taking action to prepare staff and parents.
Daniela Ochoa's twin daughters are in first grade at Meadow Homes Elementary in Concord, the same school she went to when she was their age. But when she was a student here, her parents were undocumented.
She remembers them living in a state of constant fear.
"'What's going to happen tomorrow when I wake up and take my kid to school. Am I going to meet them, ICE, there or is ICE going to be around school or something?'" she recalled.
Her parents did become U.S. citizens years later, but for other undocumented families, the fear of ICE agents coming to school is very real once again.
"I will do whatever it takes to protect our students," said Dr. Adam Clark, the superintendent of Mount Diablo Unified School District.
He said while he will not instruct staff to break the law, if ICE agents do show up at a school campus, they will not be allowed access to the school. The agents will have to go to the administration building where he and the district's lawyers will review whatever paperwork or warrant the ICE agents have.
He also said the district will notify parents and local law enforcement immediately.
"A lot of this is politics. A lot of promises have been made, a lot of threats have been made, and so unfortunately, we are the ones who have to comfort the children," says Clark.
From the administration to the teacher's union, everyone says their top priority is protecting the children.
"When I heard what the current administration was doing, it just tore my heart out. I cried because I would hate to see those students leave," says Linda Ortega, a longtime MDUSD teacher and now a leader with the teacher's union.
For Ochoa, she said she feels for the families who are now going through what she went through all those years ago.
"Everything with the ICE is just too much for families. It was like a trauma, you know," she said.
Public schools in California cannot ask students or their parents about their immigration status. The data doesn't exist at the school district level, and administrators hope parents will keep that in mind when making decisions about their children's education.