For a short time last week, it seemed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown had reached San Francisco. A middle school student reported an encounter with a federal agent on a Muni bus. San Francisco Unified School District administrators quickly shared the report Thursday, the news gained steam, but it turned out to be a false rumor.
It wasn’t the only rumor going around. Karen Rodriguez, a Colombian asylum seeker with a seven-year-old student in the district, has received multiple messages, through an app for parents, about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sightings in the Mission District. To her knowledge, they were never confirmed.
“I got rid of the app because I didn’t want to see those types of things,” Rodriguez told The Frisc in Spanish through a translator. She continues to take her son to school and go about her day despite the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty since Trump’s reelection.
In light of the Muni rumor, Superintendent Maria Su said Tuesday the district is creating clearer communication policies around reports of immigration actions. Administrators must first contact the central office, and their staff should stay mum until reports are validated.
Su and other city leaders gathered at City Hall as the supervisors reaffirmed SF’s sanctuary city policy, but later apologized for last week’s high-profile gaffe. “I apologize that perhaps last week we reacted too quickly in hearing what our brave student reported to one of our principals,” Su said at last night’s Board of Education meeting. “I ask for forgiveness but also for patience as we try to determine and confirm incidents.”
(Su said the student had actually seen “law enforcement” board the bus to retrieve a boy accidentally separated from his family.)
“The last thing we want is to add to any confusion or fear,” said Board of Education president Phil Kim.
Trump has given ICE authority to enter schools, hospitals, and churches, and the agency has begun raids in Chicago and New York City. San Francisco, which has an official sanctuary policy to limit cooperation with ICE, has assumed since the election it would be in the new administration’s crosshairs. (Su told The Frisc that school attendance hasn’t dropped since the start of the calendar year. District officials did not provide attendance data in time for publication.)
Some SF officials have shown they can move fast to counter potential threats. Just before Trump’s inauguration, the Board of Supervisors changed its rules to quickly accept more than $130 million in federal grants before the new administration could rescind them.
To help students, the main response so far from SF’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA) and SFUSD has been to emphasize resources that already exist. “The focus right now has been awareness for family preparedness,” Jorge Rivas, OCEIA’s executive director, told The Frisc last week.
For example, OCEIA is promoting the Rapid Response Network as the first number to call in a crisis, to verify ICE activity and find an attorney to help detainees. OCEIA also refers people to legal and financial resources to help with immigration cases and applications.
Rivas encouraged residents to help disseminate know-your-rights materials at meetings, clinics, and other public places. He also urged people to not let fear stop them from using public services.
Under SFUSD’s own sanctuary policy, the district does not record a student’s immigration status. It also refers immigration officials to the superintendent’s office or legal department, and contacts numbers on a student’s emergency card if a parent or guardian is detained.
Su said the district convened administrators in November to review the policy and followed up with a PowerPoint slide deck.
“It is critical that families are aware that we will continue to stand by SFUSD’s sanctuary policy,” Kim told The Frisc.
More meetings?
Some schools have held their own know-your-rights workshops and talked to high school students about other ways to prepare. But a top union official says the district isn’t doing enough.
United Educators of San Francisco Treasurer Geri Almanza wants a more coordinated effort across more schools, perhaps holding family meetings during school advisory periods, which students have multiple times a week. Almanza says information such as how to arrange back-up child care should come from teachers, not from top-down administration messages.
“I don’t think that’s widely understood,” said Almanza, who has been visiting schools with the activist group Faith in Action Bay Area. “The best [school] relationship any parent has is with their classroom teacher, or sometimes social workers.”
Karen Rodriguez, the Colombian asylum seeker, got a know-your-rights card at the shelter where she’s staying. (She’s slated to be evicted on Feb. 10. The city last year reinstated its pre-COVID limit of 90 days per shelter stay for homeless families and just granted a short extension.)
I would like to know more exactly about my rights and how to act in that moment.
karen rodriguez, asylum seeker from colombia, when asked what else san francisco could do to help guard against threats of immigration enforcement
She knows she has the right to remain silent but would like meetings that help families fully understand their rights, how ICE operates, and how to prepare a contingency plan.
“I would like to know more exactly about my rights and how to act in that moment,” Rodriguez said. Despite the looming eviction, “I have the feeling that San Francisco wants to protect us.”
Su said more know-your rights workshops are coming with the help of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network, but there’s no word of holding meetings during school time, as Almanza suggested.
According to Su, SFUSD and the City Attorney now have a formal agreement to investigate reports of detainments, raids, and other enforcement measures, and the district is pursuing more legal access for students and families.
“I fully acknowledge the tension, the fear and the stress that is happening in our schools, with our staff right now,” Su said. “We are proud to serve thousands of students who come to us from all over the world. We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all students, regardless of immigration status.”
Trump won re-election more than two months ago, and students returned from winter break three weeks ago. SFUSD seems to be playing catch-up. By comparison, the Los Angeles Unified School District started the year with a We Are One campaign and handbook. It includes instructions to make a family preparedness plan (“Part 1: Make a child care plan”), know-your-rights cards and webinars, and more. LA schools have also begun handing out cards, and the district published an ICE reference guide for staff, according to the Boyle Heights Beat.
SFUSD has gathered resources in one place by linking from its main web page to a memo posted Jan. 23.
Matt Alexander, a school board member who is also a Faith in Action Bay Area organizer, told The Frisc that preparation is important, but so is the ability to react to what actually happens. (Alexander said he was speaking on behalf of Faith in Action, not SFUSD.)
He cited an effort when he was a school principal to prevent deportation of a student’s parent after the other parent was deported. Building relationships between immigrant parents and educators is key; Faith in Action and UESF have a new partnership to visit schools and talk to staff and families about preparing for immigration enforcement.
“These things have been happening on a smaller scale,” Alexander said. “The bottom line is no one knows what is going to happen.”