With President Donald Trump‘s return to office, California state legislators have been rushing to draft bills to protect migrant families targeted by federal immigration officers for mass deportation.
Among the latest bills introduced is one by Senate Education Chair Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, to immediately alert students, parents and school staff if immigration officers are on school grounds, including on college campuses.
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SB 98, also known as the Sending Alerts to Families in Education (SAFE) Act, was introduced last week, two days after the Trump administration announced it had reversed a previous federal policy restricting immigration officers from entering so-called “sensitive” places, including schools, churches and hospitals, to arrest undocumented migrants.
“The Trump administration has made clear that no place is safe from mass deportations. Students and parents are rightfully scared,” Pérez said in a statement.
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“It’s clear President Trump will not respect the sanctity of our schools,” she continued. “Therefore, California must take bold action to inform and empower students to make the best decisions about their safety and their family’s safety.”
Pérez’s bill would require schools, including colleges, to “immediately notify all pupils, parents, faculty, staff and other school community members of the presence of immigration officers on the schoolsite.”
Jerome Parra, her spokesperson, said schools already have systems in place to send rapid alerts via texts or emails, for example, if there is nearby police activity and the school goes into lockdown. Generally, parents and school employees opt-in to receive the alerts, Parra said.
Under this bill, schools would use that same system to notify the community if immigration enforcement agents appeared on a campus.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement last week about the Trump administration’s new policy allowing the arrest of migrants in previously “sensitive” areas, saying the latest action empowers immigration enforcement agents “to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
Many communities, including in Los Angeles and Orange counties, are living in fear, especially after a series of raids by federal immigration agents across the country this past weekend. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s L.A. division reported assisting DHS and other federal law enforcement partners in “immigration enforcement efforts” on Sunday.
Even before this weekend, some local school districts had taken measures to support students, families and staff members who are fearful of being deported.
The L.A. Unified School District in November reaffirmed itself as a “sanctuary district.” Officials in the nation’s second-largest school district also relaunched its “We Are One” campaign this week and began handing out cards to educate immigrant families about their rights if confronted by federal immigration authorities.
In Orange County, the Santa Ana school board similarly adopted a resolution in December declaring SAUSD school sites as “safe havens” and promising not to share information or to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The resolution also said the district will provide mental health and legal services information to students and families.
Despite the actions of K-12 districts like those in L.A. and Santa Ana, many, including at the college level, worry that undocumented immigrants will be swept up in ICE raids.
That’s why the University of California Student Association is sponsoring SB 98.
“Our colleges and universities are supposed to be safe havens for every student, regardless of their immigration status,” Esther Mejia, UCSA’s government relations chair and a student at UC Santa Barbara, said in a statement.
“My own experiences with ICE raids creating fear in our community has given me a personal stake in this fight for justice for our immigrant communities,” said Mejia.
Besides Pérez, other legislators from L.A. County have introduced their own bills to protect students and families in schools from immigration enforcement officers.
Assembly Education Chair Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, has a bill, AB 49, that would prevent school or child care employees from allowing ICE officials to enter a school or facility without valid identification and a judicial warrant, a written statement of purpose and explicit permission from the school district’s superintendent or the head of the child care center. The ICE agents’ access would also be limited to when students and children aren’t present.
Another bill, SB 48, introduced by Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, would bar law enforcement agencies from working with or sharing information with federal immigration authorities for the purpose of immigration enforcement actions within 1 mile of a school site.
These bills have not been heard in committees.
Staff writers Teresa Liu, Alexcia Negrete and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.
