The Superintendent of Detroit’s public schools sent a letter to parents and teachers saying that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will not have access to school grounds, according to The Detroit News.
“School personnel have been directed not to allow any officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol or other federal immigration enforcement agencies access to our school buildings or grounds, school events, or information about our students,” Nikolai Vitti said in his letter to parents and faculty.
At a meeting last week, Vitali told people at the school district’s community meeting that ICE will not get passed their doors, and if they do the school district will get involved.
In August, the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s school board passed a sanctuary district policy trying to ease people’s “immigration-related” fears affecting students’ ability to learn.
ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls told The Detroit News that ICE had no intention of being in their school district.
“Current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activities at sensitive locations unless they have prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or in the event of exigent circumstances,” he said. “The locations specified in the guidance include schools, places of worship, and hospitals.”
Detroit joins other cities with a large Hispanic population in passing sanctuary district policies. School districts in Chicago, Houston, Denver and Los Angeles have passed similar policies.
School districts passing these policies fear what happened after ICE arrested 680 people in its Mississippi food-processing plant raids. A day after the August 7th raids, more than 25 percent of the Scott County School District’s Hispanic students were absent.
A similar situation happened in Tennessee last year when ICE raided a Hamblen County meatpacking plant and arrested almost 100 people. The day after, 500 kids did not attend school in the Hamblen County schools.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
Photo “Nikolai Vitti” by Nikolai Vitti.
