What Immigration Experts Say: Covering Threats to Undocumented Students

Journalists know that even in an era when undocumented children face great threats against their education, they remain protected under the landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe. 

But they might not know the extent to which Plyer, once thought to be ironclad, is under attack — consider action in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana and Texas — as some seek to make the country inhospitable to those without papers. 

Such challenges come alongside new guidance from the Trump administration that allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out their work on school grounds, raising new questions about undocumented students’ rights. 

Teachers have spent weeks listening to these students’ fears and looking to their school administrators for answers. Many districts have responded with clear-cut guidance but others have remained silent, a worrying stance for students who feel especially vulnerable. 

Fear has already proven fatal for one child, according to her mother: She said her 11-year-old daughter died by suicide after relentless immigration-related bullying. 

In the wake of these new developments, immigration advocates and attorneys have agreed to answer questions about undocumented students’ rights — and the measures some schools have taken to protect them on campus. This author, a long-time education reporter who writes frequently about immigration, will also provide insight and reporting tips. 

The Participants in the Q&A 

• Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, Southeast regional attorney at the National Immigration Project, a membership organization of attorneys, advocates, and community members who believe all people should be treated with dignity, live freely, and flourish.
• Jessica Lander, history and civics teacher, History Co:Lab senior policy fellow and Re-Imagining Migration senior education policy fellow. Lander is author of Making Americans, Beacon Press, 2022.
• Adam Strom, executive director of Re-Imagining Migration, which seeks to advance the education and well-being of immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias and hatred against young people of diverse origins, and help rising generations develop the critical understanding and empathy necessary to build and sustain welcoming and inclusive communities.
• Jo Napolitano, senior reporter for The 74, is the author of The School I Deserve: Six Young Refugees and Their Fight for Equality in America, Beacon Press, 2021. A former staff writer for the Chicago Tribune and Newsday, she was also a Spencer Fellow at Columbia University. 

Background From the Immigration Experts

1. What should journalists know after the Sensitive Locations Policy was eliminated?

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones: Until January 2025, there was a longstanding Sensitive Locations Policy, which directed ICE to avoid conducting immigration enforcement activities, such as arrests, interviews, or searches in schools. Whether or not ICE agents can ultimately enter a school building or campus comes down to state and local law and policy, and the general distinction between ICE’s power in public versus private spaces. 

Generally, ICE agents are allowed in public areas but cannot enter private spaces without a judicial warrant — which they typically do not have, as they usually carry administrative warrants — or someone’s consent. That means that ICE agents can hang around pick-up and drop-off areas at K-12 schools, or public areas of a college campus. But without a judicial warrant, ICE agents cannot enter private areas, like classrooms in K-12 schools or college dorms. Some schools have policies in place that delineate a chain of command of who can provide consent to ICE’s presence on campus.  

2. To help journalists put the experiences of the undocumented into context, what rights do these students have? 

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones:

• The Right to Attend School: Red states and other actors on the right have vocally called for Plyler to be overruled, and we expect that red states will seek to bring challenges that attack Plyler. But unless and until the Supreme Court explicitly overrules Plyler, everyone, regardless of their immigration status, has the right to attend school.
  
• The Right to Remain Silent: Everyone — no matter their immigration status or their age — has the right to remain silent when interacting with law enforcement, including ICE agents. It is best to say “I am exercising my right to remain silent” when doing so.
  
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: Under FERPA, schools/districts are not allowed to share information from student records without written permission from the student’s family, unless in response to a subpoena. Additionally, under the Supreme Court’s opinion in Plyler, it is a violation for a school to ask for families’ and students’ immigration status.

3. How can journalists assess how or whether school districts protect undocumented students? 

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones: School leadership — such as the superintendent — should establish policies that direct school officials to not allow ICE to enter, meet with, or interview students in the absence of a judicial warrant. Once those policies are established, it is critical that these policies are clearly communicated to staff.

4. Some schools ask for — and make public — information that can put a spotlight on immigrant students. What should journalists look for? 

Jessica Lander: Schools should review the type of information they collect under student records to ensure they are not seeking information about students’ and families’ immigration status, which is a violation of Plyler v. Doe. Schools can also reconsider what they collect under the category of “Directory Information,” which is not FERPA protected and can be shared without families’ consent. Some schools have collected and included students’ country of birth and their home addresses in such directories, which can unwittingly put a spotlight on immigrant students. Schools can — and are being encouraged to — remove these categories in their school directory information. 

5. Des Moines, Chicago and Denver schools have publicly vowed to welcome and protect immigrant students on campus. What should reporters note about the impact of such statements? Could they make these campuses more vulnerable to immigration enforcement action? 

Jessica Lander: Conceivably, yes this could make them a target in the same way sanctuary cities have been — and are — targets. However, remaining silent sends a powerful and profound message to immigrant students: that they are not welcome, that they are not safe and that they don’t belong. It is crucial to recognize that the law is clear: All young people living in the United States have a right to an education. It is important that schools and educators uphold this most fundamental right. 

6. What should reporters consider in examining how students’ fear of deportation could impact enrollment, absenteeism and federal funding? 

Adam Strom: The connection between immigration enforcement fears and school enrollment isn’t just theoretical. Consider our rural communities. Many are already fighting to keep their schools open due to declining birth rates and changing demographics. In these places, immigrant families aren’t just part of the school community: They are often the reason these schools can survive. 

Now, look at what’s happening in our urban areas, particularly New York City. It’s still reeling from losing more than 100,000 students since the pandemic began in one of the biggest enrollment drops it’s ever seen. The impact is staggering. The number of schools with fewer than 200 students has more than doubled, jumping from 81 in 2016 to 190 last year. This dramatic shift shows just how deeply enrollment declines are affecting the system’s ability to maintain viable schools.

Here’s why this matters for funding: When fear of deportation keeps students home, it creates a devastating domino effect. Lower enrollment means less federal funding, which means fewer resources for all students. And because federal funding is tied to attendance, even when enrolled students stay home out of fear, schools lose crucial resources. What’s particularly heartbreaking is that this fear-driven absenteeism hits hardest in communities that are already struggling with declining enrollment. 

7. What should reporters know about the impact of immigration enforcement during Trump’s last presidency? 

Adam Strom: When we look at what happened with immigration enforcement during [Trump’s] last administration, the impact on our schools was profound. What’s particularly striking is that it wasn’t just the actual enforcement actions that caused harm — it was the constant fear and anticipation of what might happen that created this pervasive atmosphere of anxiety that eroded the school climate and negatively impacted learning.

UCLA researchers found something really troubling: 85% of teachers were seeing real fear in their immigrant students.

[Precisely 5,438 people responded to the 2018 survey from The Civil Rights Project. The first question asked if they observed any impact of immigration enforcement at their school/in their classroom. If they answered “no”, the survey ended, but that single response counted toward the percent of people who believed there was an impact. Data shows 73% indicated they had or might have observed an impact: The remainder did not. Not all respondents completed the survey: roughly 3,500 did.]

[Thousands of respondents reported that their immigrant students were terrified that they, their families and friends would be picked up by ICE. It often made it very difficult for them to learn — and for teachers to teach. Nearly 90 percent of administrators reported emotional and behavioral problems tied to immigration issues among their students, and two-thirds of respondents said fear and concern for classmates was affecting the education of students who were not targets of enforcement.] 

Kids were having trouble concentrating in class.

Some stopped showing up regularly, and many families became afraid to engage with their children’s schools. Some families started making emergency plans “just in case,” which meant children as young as elementary school age had to think about who would take care of them if their parents didn’t come home one day. 

This didn’t just affect immigrant students. The anxiety spread throughout entire school communities. We saw an increase in hostile behavior, with “Build the wall” becoming the most common phrase used in bullying incidents, according to The Washington Post. More recently, we’re hearing really disturbing things like “Pack your bags,” and “Your parents are going to be sent away.

The toll on educators was enormous too. [In January 2018, research associates with the Civil Rights Project at UCLA conducted extended questionnaires and interviews with 38 educators who took part in a larger study on the impact of immigration enforcement. More than 85% reported an increase in anxiety and stress which they attributed to their students’ experiences with increased immigration enforcement.]

They were experiencing what we call Secondary Traumatic Stress from watching their students suffer. They were working overtime trying to help families who were being targeted by immigration officials. And they saw their school communities, which they’d worked so hard to build, starting to break down. 

Education Reporting Tips From Jo Napolitano

1. There are roughly 400,000 undocumented students enrolled in higher education. How can reporters find out what life is like for these students on campus and protect sources who worry about their own deportation? 

Reporters should reach out to Hispanic or Latinx groups on campus to learn how these students feel. They should also ask potential sources how they would like to be identified: By first name? Middle name? An entirely different name? They should be prepared for any answer and talk with their editors to understand what their news agency finds acceptable. 

Journalists might also consult reports like this, which found students who feared their parents’ deportation often saw their grades suffer or this, which assessed undocumented students’ access to higher education. They should note, too, that many universities have addressed this issue and might provide further information on how they help students cope with immigration-related stress. Those schools might be amenable to connecting reporters with students — especially if they know in advance that journalists would consider concealing a vulnerable student’s identity.

2. What bills should reporters be aware of that seek to curb undocumented students’ access to higher education? 

Florida is considering bills to limit undocumented students’ access to any state public colleges with an acceptance rate below 85%. Texas might eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented students. Debates are ongoing about whether some university systems can employ undocumented students, which is tied, of course, to college’s affordability.