Richmond, Virginia—It is back-to-school season across Virginia, and for many families and caregivers, the normal jitters around new schools, teachers, and friends have been replaced by something much more existential: a looming fear that sending their students back to school will open their families up to scrutiny by increasingly militarized ICE forces. Virginia is currently experiencing one of the most significant increases in immigration enforcement in the country: Immigration enforcement has risen in Virginia by 350% and approximately 2,512 Virginians have been arrested in ICE raids this year. Since new guidance allowed ICE agents to enter sensitive areas like schools, courthouses, and churches, enforcement has ramped up in many of those areas, sometimes without the knowledge of or consent from local officials.
Recent reports of ICE patrolling school drop-off lines in North Carolina, mistakenly detaining a 15 year old student with disabilities outside of his California school, and terrorizing immigrant families across Los Angeles has left school districts across Virginia scrambling to develop policies to keep ICE away from their schools, thinking through ways to protect their students and doing their best to reassure worried families. The Migration Project estimates that approximately 17,000 undocumented children are enrolled in Virginia schools.
“Forcing families to choose between their children’s education and their physical safety is inhumane, and ICE’s willingness to target our students and their families to meet their artificially imposed quotas is sickening,” said LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director of Progress Virginia. “ICE agents have no business near our schools, period. What’s happening across Virginia and across this nation is a targeted campaign of fear designed to terrorize immigrant communities. We need bold action from state and local leaders right now to draw a clear line: our schools are off-limits, and we will not stand by while our neighbors are hunted.”
Background:
- About 13.2% of Virginia residents (more than one million people) were born someplace other than the United States, and 6.9% of US-born residents have at least one immigrant parent.
- The libertarian CATO Institute says that 93% of immigrants taken by ICE have no violent criminal convictions, and 65% have no convictions of any kind (including minor traffic offenses).
- In Virginia, immigrants contribute approximately $18.3 billion in state and local tax revenue
- Most immigration enforcement has taken place in Richmond and Fairfax County, following Donald Trump’s explicit pledge to focus enforcement efforts in Democratic cities.
- Recent polling has shown that record numbers of Americans say immigration is good for the country and disagree with the Trump administration’s deportation actions.