Thread: Agents Inquire About Students' Immigration Status

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectio ... id=4164728

Agents Inquire About Students' Immigration Status
By Lyanne Melendez
May 11 - KGO - School officials in San Francisco are outraged after immigration agents tried to verify the identity of two students whose mom was held on illegal immigration charges. The school refused to cooperate with the agents.

On May 5, an immigration agent made an early phone call to the principal of Presidio Middle School.

Lorna Ho, spokesperson, San Francisco Unified School District: "And indicated they were looking for two students and they wanted to verify whether those students were at the school."

The school refused to cooperate saying that information was confidential. Agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement then made a formal request through a letter faxed to the school.

Lorna Ho: "Our legal department picked up the ball from there. We contacted the legal council at the immigration office and between the two councils worked out that in fact we would not be verifying or identifying any children and whether or not they attended that school."

While this was happening, the children's mother was in a holding cell on illegal immigration charges.

According to immigration spokesperson Virginia Kice, the agents never went to the school nor did they attempt to remove the students.

In a statement Kice said, "ICE agents did not physically go to the middle school seeking the woman's children. The agents contacted school representatives by phone to ensure measures were taken to ensure the children's welfare while their mother was detained."

The school district is now reviewing another matter: Do immigration agents have the right to take a student, who is here illegally, from a school?

Immigration attorneys say children are subject to the same immigration laws as adults.

Sarah Bronstein, immigration attorney: "If a warrant is issued then they would have to allow access."

Still, San Francisco school officials say they hope it never comes to that.

Lorna Ho: "We are not in the business of participating in immigration activities and handing children over to frankly anyone who comes to get them up at school. really our interaction is with their parents and their parents has to give us approval before their child is allowed to do anything and that's really where the buck stops."

We contacted several other school districts and many said they'd never dealt with an issue like this before. San Jose Unified tells us they would not hand over students to government officials if asked, but they would act within the law. Tracy school officials say they don't have a policy addressing this issue, but would seek legal counsel.

In a statement Kice said, "ICE agents did not physically go to the middle school seeking the woman's children. The agents contacted school representatives by phone to ensure measures were taken to ensure the children's welfare while their mother was detained."

This is a sensible action by ICE. If the mother is in jail, something has to be done with the children. Is the school going to take care of their needs?

This is true what to do with the children if the mother is incarcerated for being here illegally. I guess state services would hold them if there are no other relatives here to care for them. If the mother is deported unless those other relatives will sponsor them they will be deported as well.