Last time Donald Trump was president, rumors of immigration raids terrorized the community in Oregon, where Gustavo Balderas was the school principal.

Word spread that immigration agents would try to enter the schools. There was no truth, but school staff members were supposed to find students who were avoiding school and convince them to return to class.

“People just started hiding and hiding,” Balderas said.

Educators across the country are bracing for upheaval, whether the president-elect follows suit or not commitment to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Even if he only talks about it, children of immigrants will suffer, educators and legal observers said.

If you “constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportationit really inhibits people’s ability to function in society and for their children to get an education,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.

That fear has already begun for many.

“Kids are still coming to school, but they’re afraid,” said Almudena Abeyta, superintendent of public schools in Chelsea, a Boston suburb that has long been a first stop for Central American immigrants coming to Massachusetts. Now Haitians make the city their home and send their children to school there.

“They’re asking, ‘Are we going to be deported?'” Abeyta said.

Many parents in her district grew up in countries where the federal government ran schools, and they might think it’s the same here. The day after the election, Abeyta sent home a letter assuring parents their children are welcome and safe no matter who is president.

Immigration officials have avoided arresting parents or students at schools. Since 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has operated under a policy that immigration agents should not make arrests or conduct other law enforcement actions near “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals, and detention centers of worship That could reduce access to essential services, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a 2021 policy update.

The Heritage Foundation’s Policy Roadmap for Trump’s Second Term, Project 2025calls for the “sensitive places” guidance to be withdrawn. Trump tried to distance himself from the proposals during the campaign, but nominated many of those who worked on the plan for his new administration, including Tom Homan for the “border tsar”.

If immigration agents were to arrest a parent dropping children off at school, it could set off mass panic, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Los Angeles Immigrant Human Rights Coalition.

“If something happens at a school, it spreads like wildfire and kids stop coming to school,” she said.

Balderas, now superintendent in Beaverton, another Portland suburb, told the school board there this month that it’s time to prepare for a more assertive Trump administration. If schools are targeted, Beaverton will train staff not to allow immigration agents inside.

“All bets are off with Trump,” said Balderas, who is also president of ASSA, the Association of School Superintendents. “If anything happens, I feel like it will happen a lot faster than last time.”

Many school officials are reluctant to talk about their plans or concerns, some for fear of drawing attention to their immigrant students. A school administrator who serves many children of Mexican and Central American immigrants in the Midwest said their school has brought in immigration attorneys to help parents formalize any plans for their children’s care if they are deported. The administrator spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Speaking up for immigrant families can also put superintendents at odds with school board members.

“This is a very sensitive issue,” said Viridiana Carrizales, executive director of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that forms schools to support immigrant students.

She has received 30 requests for help since the election, including two from Texas superintendents who don’t think their conservative school boards would agree to publicly affirm immigrant students’ right to attend school or district plans to turn away agency workers. immigration.

More than two dozen superintendents and district communications representatives contacted by The Associated Press either ignored or declined requests for comment.

“This is so speculative that we would prefer not to comment on the matter,” wrote Scott Pribble, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools.

The city of Denver has helped more than 40,000 migrants in the past two years with shelter or a bus ticket elsewhere. It is also next to Auroraone of two cities where Trump said he would mass deportations begin.

When pressed further, Pribble responded, “Denver Public Schools is monitoring the situation as we continue to serve, support and protect all of our students as we always have.”

Like a number of large districts, Denver’s school board during the first Trump administration passed a resolution promising to protect its students from immigration authorities tracking them or tracking their information. According to the 2017 resolution, Denver will not “grant access to our students” unless federal agents can provide a valid search warrant.

The reason was that students can’t study if they fear immigration agents will take them or their parents away while on campus. The school districts also say the policies reaffirm their students’ constitutional right to a free public education, regardless of immigration status.

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