East Aurora School District 131 Superintendent Robert Halverson says a confrontation at a district school last weekend that ended in two protestors getting detained by federal immigration agents is affecting students’ willingness to come to class.
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Attendance districtwide this week was down from the previous week, he said, particularly at the school where the incident took place.
Last Saturday, Oct. 25, the district found itself caught in the crosshairs of federal immigration agent actions, when two protestors in Aurora were alerted to suspicious vehicles parked at Allen Elementary School on the city’s East Side. Responding to the alerts, one of the protestors said he was tackled, and both say they were pepper-sprayed by federal agents and detained.
Now, nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” a surge of immigration law enforcement in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, district leadership is claiming that the recent enforcement action on its property is having a chilling effect on the school community.
The district saw 256 fewer students at school on Monday — two days after the incident at Allen — than the number in attendance on average in the district for the previous week, according to Halverson. The district’s total enrollment is about 12,000, according to the state’s latest figures.
According to Halverson, the attendance rate at the school where the interaction took place has decreased to just under 87%, which is historically about 6% lower than the yearly average at the school.
At a special meeting of the district’s school board on Tuesday, Halverson and school board president Juan Sifuentes spoke about the recent immigration enforcement action and affirmed their commitment to educating students regardless of their immigration status. The board also considered a resolution seeking to prohibit immigration enforcement actions on district property.
Sifuentes, at the meeting, said that school districts have “a duty to provide educational services to all children residing within the district, without regard to their race, color, creed, gender, national origin or their immigration status,” and that anything that “interferes with the educational process is in direct conflict with the mission” of the district.
He said federal agents had used district property without authorization, and that their presence was “clearly disruptive and has created an obstacle to (the district’s) ability to educate (its) children.” He emphasized that the district has not given permission for such operations and does not intend to.
Sifuentes went on to describe a chilling effect on the district, saying federal agents’ presence “creates a false and dangerous impression that somehow attending school, participating in school events or visiting or utilizing district facilities … for any purpose or … at any time will bring our students, parents, families or staff into contact with an agency having an interest in their immigration status, which we are by law prohibited from considering.”
Halverson also said last weekend’s incident has created a “chill” on students’ “willingness … to attend class,” he said, even those who are U.S. citizens, and created a “palpable anxiety” among those who do choose to go to school.
This situation is not unique to Aurora. Families in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs have been left on edge as fear surrounding immigration enforcement mounts, including at schools. Some Chicago-area schools have gone into lockdown and canceled field trips or homecoming events in response to nearby ICE activity. Some parents in the Chicago area say they fear being targeted while taking their children to and from school, while others are keeping their children home as a precaution.
Early in President Trump’s first term, the federal administration threw out policies that previously limited where officers enforcing immigration laws can make arrests, according to The Associated Press. This reversed guidance that for over a decade restricted federal immigration agencies from carrying out immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools and churches.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the District 131 school board, in response to the recent incident, passed a resolution aimed at prohibiting federal agents from conducting immigration enforcement actions on district property.
In addition to expressing support for students and families, the measure stipulates that immigration enforcement actions are not permitted on district property without a valid judicial warrant signed by a federal judge or magistrate, and indicates that any federal immigration agents who enter district property without one will be considered trespassers. It also instructs all district staff who encounter federal agents on or attempting to enter district property to contact the superintendent or one of his designees.
Similar measures have been cropping up in municipalities in the Chicago area.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson established Chicago city property as “ICE-free” zones in early October, and municipalities like Evanston, Waukegan, Carpentersville
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and North Chicago have followed suit with similar measures. Elgin is also considering prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from using city property for detentions and other purposes.Halverson indicated on Tuesday that the district would share the resolution with principals, staff and parents, and that the district will be putting additional signage up on district properties.
The Associated Press contributed.