Last Updated on May 13, 2025 by BVN
S.E. Williams
The current pending version of California Senate Bill 48, Immigration Enforcement: School Site Prohibitions on Access and Sharing Information, states in part, “This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, or charter schools and their personnel, to the extent possible, from granting permission to an immigration authority to access the nonpublic areas of a school site, producing a pupil for questioning by an immigration authority at a school site, or consenting to a search of any kind in the nonpublic areas of a school site by an immigration authority, unless the immigration authority presents a valid judicial warrant or court order.”
This measure, endorsed by California Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurman, is the state’s whiplash response of the aggressive anti-immigrant policies being facilitated by the current Trump administration.
Among Trump’s numerous and dreadful actions across a number of areas impacting the nation’s vulnerable was his decision to rescind the country’s “sensitive locations” policy. Initially implemented by former President Bill Clinton in 1993, this policy, in existence for more than 30 years, had served as a protective shield for schools, hospitals, and places of worship from enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) .
This was another Trump action that struck a heightened level fear in the hearts of immigrant communities. Would ICE really raid schools, some wondered. Why wouldn’t it? During Trump’s last tour as president he virtually snatched babies from their mother’s arms, had young children sleeping on concrete floors wrapped in space blankets and locked in cages. Nothing this man does should surprise any of us.
The change not only stoked significant fear among immigrant parents and their students that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might raid schools, it raised alarms among school officials around the state. Research shows a significant correlation between ICE arrests and substantial declines in students enrollment, especially among Hispanic youth. Such declines were evident among U.S.-born, foreign-born, and individuals in mixed-status families alike.
“Each child belongs to all of us and they will bring us a tomorrow in direct relation to the responsibility we have shown to them.”
Maya Angelou
Evidence in recent weeks proves the concerns of immigrants are warranted and adds a sense of urgency for the state legislature to pass Senate Bill 48 quickly. I say this because in recent weeks, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have attempted to enter school campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The agents purportedly lied to school officials claiming they had permission of the children’s parents to do wellness checks.
In a letter to the HSI, California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff spoke of the terror this created among students and families. In closing the letter made the following appeal, “We urge you to end any efforts to conduct “welfare checks” on school premises and to ensure that ICE agents do not attempt to visit or enter schools without a warrant.”
In the meantime, the Trump administration continues to ignore the courts. It has already, “removed some protections from deportation, cancelled grants that provided legal representation to children, [and] fired dozens of the judges responsible for hearing immigration cases,” as noted by NPR. In addition, Trump has moved individuals to prisons outside of the United States.
All of this has occurred while our senators walk through the “polite” yet ineffective senate protocol that has yet to produce any meaningful push back against the Trump administration’s grotesque policies regarding immigration or anything else, for that matter. While on the other hand, California state legislators appear to be weighing their own political vulnerability as the protections offered to California schools via Proposition 48 crawls its way through the state’s legislative process.
While democratic legislators appear stymied, the Trump administration continues to move at light speed with very clear intention–to reduce the number of people of color in this country who are changing the shade of America–even if this means trying to snatch immigrant children from schools. This is no idle threat.
In January, the San Bernardino Unified School District school board adopted a resolution outlining their commitment to protecting all students regardless of immigration status and to provide guidance “to all district personnel in responding to any attempt or request by immigration enforcement officers to contact or obtain information from or regarding any student or family member.” A similar measure was established by Riverside Unified School District in 2017.
Despite similar policies in place at the Los Angeles Unified School District, and as noted above, we learned that regardless of what the school districts have established, agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are still trying to get passed campus gatekeepers. School principals at the sites, adhered to district protocols, asked for identification and a judicial warrant. Without a warrant, the agents’ requests were declined. However, what happens the next time these agents show up at a school site but this time, with a warrant “in hand” thanks to the obliging action of some “Maga-enthused” jurist who issues a judicial warrant on their behalf?
Today, the administration is attempting to take undocumented immigrant children from schools and place them on the fast track for deportation along with their parents–or, maybe even without their parents. Who knows what the Trump administration is capable of doing.
Currently, the administration has its sights set on undocumented immigrant children and their parents. Tomorrow, will these same agents come in search of children whose parents belong to the LGBTQ+ community? Will they then come after children whose parents are in prison? Will they stop there? Or, will they come after the kids of those parents who don’t practice Christianity? Who will they come for next? When will they come for your child? When will they come for mine?
I encourage you to call your state representatives and urge them to pass SB48.
Of course this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.
