By Keri Heath | Austin American-Statesman
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus asked the Texas Education Agency in a letter Thursday to issue guidance for school districts on how to respond to a U.S. Homeland Security Department announcement that schools, churches and other “sensitive” spaces would no longer be protected from immigration raids, upending a long-standing policy.
The request from the Texas House members comes as school districts and churches around the state and country begin issuing their own local guidance about how staff members should handle federal immigration and other law enforcement officers possibly descending onto campuses.
The caucus’ letter asks the TEA to issue guidance specifically about the districts’ obligation to protect student records and information in compliance with privacy laws, on protocols for school staff members’ interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and on how districts should provide mental health support to students coping with fear of immigration enforcement.
“It is imperative that the TEA act swiftly to protect the integrity of our educational institutions and the wellbeing of our students by ensuring that Texas schools are fully informed of their rights and responsibilities when faced with federal immigration enforcement actions,” the letter said.
The TEA directed the American-Statesman’s questions about whether the agency planned to issue guidance to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. A spokesperson for Abbott’s office didn’t immediately respond to the Statesman’s request for comment.
The TEA should issue standard guidance so districts of all sizes, regardless of access to legal staff members and resources, have a clear picture of how to handle these situations, said Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, chairman of the legislative caucus.
“We know its politics, so shouldn’t children be left out of politics?” Romero ssked. “Shouldn’t they be left in a safe space without fear?”
The U.S. Homeland Security Department’s announcement Tuesday rescinded previous decades-old restrictions for immigration enforcement officials to operate in “sensitive” areas like churches, schools and hospitals. Previous guidance limited enforcement actions at these places to only “exigent circumstances.”
The official text of the DHS’s new directive was still not available Thursday.
For more than four decades, immigrant children have been afforded a legal right to attend public schools.
In the landmark 1982 Plyler v. Doe case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can’t deny children a free public education based on their immigration status. The case was used in 2012 to overturn an Alabama state government attempt to create a statute that would have required schools to report undocumented students in a survey.
“If this is really about cracking down on criminal aliens, if this is about somebody that works in the schools, you can wait until they leave the schools,” Romero said. “In no way, in my belief, should a school be a place where ICE, or any violent, arrests occur.”
Across the nation, school districts have begun updating and clarifying their guidance to staff members about how to address the possible presence of federal immigration officials at schools.
School districts in Chicago, Los Angeles and Phoenix, for example, insisted they wouldn’t help those officials without a valid legal order or wouldn’t voluntarily cooperate.
The Texas legislative caucus released the letter on the same day that the Austin school district issued its guidance for teachers, staff members, parents and students on how it would respond to the change.
“We recognize the emotional toll that recent news cycles may be taking on our students, families and staff,” Superintendent Matias Segura said in a statement. “For many in our community, these are not just policy discussions, but deeply personal issues that can create uncertainty and fear.”
The district’s guidance on the new federal directive is rooted in existing policy, which staff members are aware of, spokesman JJ Maldonado said.
The guidelines direct staff members who encounter any law enforcement official — other than a district officer — who wants to come onto a campus to contact campus leadership. A campus’ front desk workers should ask officers for documents laying out the reason for their visit and send the paperwork to the district’s legal counsel for review, according to the district.
This post was originally published on the Statesmen, here.