Ogden and Salt Lake City school districts want families to feel comfortable sending their kids to school this fall, regardless of their immigration status.
“We don't want people to be afraid. We don't want people to be fearful to come to school,” said Ogden Superintendent Luke Rasmussen.
This winter, Ogden, along with the Salt Lake City School District, reaffirmed its 2017 safe school resolution. Both districts emphasize each student’s right to an education, regardless of citizenship status.
During his nine years at Ogden schools, Rasmussen said he is not aware of immigration enforcement officers ever coming to a campus.
“That's just something we have not ran into, and don't foresee running into, like an ICE agent coming in, or immigration official coming into the school to look for somebody,” he said.
Conversations with local law enforcement have reassured him that schools are a safe place.
If immigration officers did come to an Ogden school, however, staff would not answer questions about any student’s legal status, in part because they do not track that information. If officials came in looking for a specific student, staff would notify that child’s parent or guardian, he said.
In Salt Lake City schools, an agent would check in with the front office like any other visitor, and district spokesperson Yándary Chatwin said the district’s legal counsel would likely be called. Their goal is to keep students safe while following the law.
“We want to make sure that whatever documentation officers might have is what is needed,” she said.
Even public schools can require visitors, including federal agents, to check in, said Utah immigration attorney Adam Crayk.
“You'd want to see if there's an actual warrant — a judicial warrant, not an executive warrant, not an Article I warrant, but a judicial warrant — to enter in beyond the lobby.”
Despite the Trump administration’s removal of schools’ and churches’ status as “sensitive” areas in January, meaning ICE can now conduct arrests in these locations, Crayk still doesn’t expect agents to show up at Utah schools.
“In past conversations with ICE agents, and I have specifically spoken with them, they've been pretty clear that they don't have a desire to enter into the schools,” he said. “They just don't want to because it does leave a bad taste in everybody's mouth.”
The exception would be a young person suspected of involvement in gang activity, he added. In that situation, agents would likely arrest a student on their way to or from school.
Ogden School District’s resolution requests that ICE agents notify the district seven days before entering its property. Crayk expects agents would give advance notice, but likely just a few hours.
“Do I think that it would be in seven days? Not a chance.”
While Crayk believes ICE will steer clear of schools for now, Border Patrol is a complicating factor. Some border agents are enforcing immigration law in Utah, he said, like in other parts of the U.S. interior. He has no contact there, so he doesn’t know what to expect.
“Could they enter into a school? Yep. Now, have they up to this point? I haven't heard it. I haven't seen it. But I don't, again, I don't have contact with them.”
And Utah doesn’t have any laws that limit ICE activity in schools, Crayk said.
“We don't have anything that protects anybody from ICE,” he said, noting how more Utah law enforcement agencies are signing 287(g) agreements with ICE.
As the school year continues, Ogden and Salt Lake City schools are paying attention to attendance and student needs. Chatwin said there is “some concern” that fears around immigration might keep students from coming to school.
“We're keeping an eye and our ears close to the ground to make sure that we're listening to what families are worried about, that we're helpful wherever we can be,” she said.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
