Tucson Unified School District will begin fine-tuning policies this week to help staff deal with incidents of immigration officials showing up at schools, officials say.
As reports of increased immigration enforcement are covered more frequently in news reports and social media, the district โ for now โ is leaning heavily on its existing policies.
โWeโre just not going to let anybody come inside a school,โ says Jennifer Eckstrom, president of the TUSD governing board. Should an immigration agent arrive at one of the districtโs campuses, they are to present a judicial warrant or specific court order, accompanied by the immigration officerโs official identification, she said Monday.
โIf any of those type of officials come to one of our campuses, they canโt just say, โIโm Border Patrol agent Brown,โ and thatโs it. They have to follow the law. There has to be documentation. There are protocols,โ fellow board member Natalie Luna Rose echoed in a separate interview.
Court documents and the officialโs form of identification are forwarded by the principal to TUSDโs legal team. If those materials are found to be valid, principals will have to let the warrantโs orders be followed, Eckstrom said.
โWeโre not going to be having people come and look to the classrooms or look for staff or anything like that,โ Eckstrom said. โThere will be no sweep of campuses. There will be no people with guns blazing coming in and traumatizing our children and our teachers. That simply will not happen.โ
The potential for individuals being detained on campus was discussed at last weekโs board meeting, in executive session, Eckstrom said.
Eckstrom, as well as Rose both said the possibility of immigration officials coming to TUSD has been on their minds since Trump won a return to the White House in November.
Eckstrom said she had been clinging to hope that mass deportations wouldnโt happen.
โChurches, hospitals and schools should be safe places for people,โ she said. โWe werenโt sure what was going to happen.โ
The board did not have meetings in December. Last weekโs meeting was the first where mass deportation was officially discussed.
On Friday, the Phoenix Union High School Districtโs governing board unanimously adopted a resolution offering guidance for responding to requests by ICE for school access or student information
That school district and TUSD have each said they do not collect information on studentโs immigration status.
Still, the possibility looms that parents will be taken into custody, leaving children behind while at school.
In 2006, more than 250 individuals working illegally at a meatpacking plant in Grand Island, Neb., were taken into custody by immigration agents during school hours. Their children were left behind at school.
Eckstrom was asked if TUSD was prepared for a similar scenario.
โThat is something that I have discussed with Dr. Trujillo: what do we do if we find ourselves in this situation? Thatโs something weโre looking at as well.โ
A letter from Trujillo was sent to families last week. It said, in part:
โWe understand that changes in immigration enforcement policy at the federal level may occur, but those changes do not affect our studentsโ right to public education and our obligation to protect our students, regardless of immigration status โฆ our leadership team, site administrators and hard-working teachers and staff will always prioritize the safety of our students and families while on school or district property, using all lawful means necessary to meet that obligation.โ
More information is coming next week.
The topic also was set to be discussed Tuesday night at the TUSD board meeting, during Trujilloโs report to the board.
Tucson Unified School Districtโs headquarters at 1010 E. 10th St.
