“This school year, the Los Angeles school district has lost more than 13,000 immigrant students, mostly Hispanic, school officials said, with students fleeing in the months since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped up activity in Los Angeles in March.”
“Some children are just choosing not to go back to school, especially those who are immigrants,” said Evelyn Aleman, founder of Our Voice, a parents’ group which advocates for L.A.’s Spanish-speaking and low-income families. “That’s because they know that immigrant children have been arrested or detained by ICE.”
In the 2018-19 academic year, the district enrolled more than 157,000 English learners. The downward trend of these students represents a stunning turnaround for a district that in 2003 was nearly half immigrant kids. It comes amid a districtwide decline in enrollment.
L.A. is not the only city seeing declines in immigrant enrollment since ICE cracked down. Denver, Miami and San Diego have also reported such losses.
Since January, school officials, municipal leaders and state lawmakers have sought to present a brave face against the immigration crackdowns promised by President Donald Trump. Even before the ICE raids began, they issued guidance and rolled out tools and policies, and proposed legislation to limit federal immigration enforcement.
But the fear of ICE became real for many families, Aleman said, after federal agents in April showed up at two LAUSD schools seeking ‘access’ to young students.
The federal agents’ school visits — with as many as four appearing at one time looking for information on children in grades one through six — were considered the first reported cases of Homeland Security authorities attempting to enter a U.S. school.
School staffers turned the agents away in both cases, but outside of school grounds at least two LAUSD students have been arrested and held by ICE, Aleman said.
“It isn’t because they don’t want to be in school,” said Aleman. “A big concern for families is that they’re going to be separated [by ICE]. Rather than see that, many are choosing to self-deport, or children who are high schoolers are choosing not to return.”
Instead, Aleman said, kids are staying home where they feel safe, or in some cases going to work outside their homes.
According to LAUSD figures, the drop in immigrant students this year means LAUSD now enrolls about half as many of those kids as it did before the pandemic.
Besides the ICE raids, factors including rising housing prices, falling birth rates and a tight local economy have also contributed to the exodus of immigrant students, said LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, who represents LAUSD’s District Seven, which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro.
“People are having less children, and traditionally, in Latino families, there are more children. So that’s one area,” said Ortiz-Franklin. “And, obviously, the cost of living in Los Angeles is ridiculous.”
Recent fears around immigration enforcement and the future of public assistance, such as SNAP benefits, are also likely driving down immigrant populations, Ortiz-Franklin said.
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