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Red and Blue school districts across the country prepare for immigration crackdown differently

February 4, 2025 | | Print Article

Red and blue state school districts are reacting completely differently to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The crackdown includes a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decision rescinding a Biden-era order blocking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from entering schools.

Over in Oklahoma, a red state, the state’s Board of Education passed a proposal last week to allow schools to take note of the immigration status of students’ legal guardians.

“The new rule, which still needs support from lawmakers and the governor, wouldn’t prohibit children without legal status from attending school but would require districts to keep track of students whose parents or guardians fail to provide the requested documentation,” according to the New York Post.

“That information, excluding personal information and names of parents, would then be sent to the State Department of Education,” the Post’s reporting continues.

“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that it is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” State Superintendent Ryan Walters said in defense of the new rule during last Tuesday’s vote.

“Why do we need that account? Well, to be clear, we know that, at a minimum, the state of Oklahoma spent $474 million to educate the children of illegal immigrants under the Biden administration. That is personnel from inside the school year to meet the needs of those students, those are numbers that we didn’t have information on,” he added.

And that information is eventually meant to go directly to the Trump administration and its immigration authorities.

Over in Los Angeles meanwhile, a blue jurisdiction, the leftist school district has begun distributing “Know Your Rights” cards to both immigrant and illegal alien students.

Distributed by the Community Resource Guide for Immigrant Angelenos, a group formed by embattled Los Angeles Karen Bass’ Office of Immigrant Affairs, the cards are designed to help recipients “assert their constitutional rights in encounters with federal law enforcement officials.”‘

The actual creators of the card are the folks at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), which has reportedly made the cards available in 16 languages, including Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Tigrinya.

Moving over to Florida, another red state, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature have moved to empower immigration authorities as much as possible.

“[P]assed legislation would require scores of government employees across the state to cooperate with Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts to the ‘fullest extent possible,’ a charge that includes local teachers, school social workers and campus safety officers,” according to Politico.

“There’s no bar in the state of Florida for conducting immigration enforcement operations,” DeSantis said during an event in Fort Meyers last Wednesday.

“Florida schools will cooperate with all law enforcement working to enforce the nation’s laws on illegal immigration and keep our schools safe,” Florida Department of Education spokesperson Sydney Booker added in a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Then over in Alabama, another red state, state Superintendent Eric Mackey released a statement on Thursday urging school districts to “just keep having school” and reminding them that immigration authorities and law enforcement officers in general “should always be welcomed onto our campuses.”

In New York, another blue enclave, Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state attorney general released a memo this week saying they “reaffirm that schools should remain a safe haven where all students are welcomed and provided a free public education.”

Border czar Tom Homan for his part said this week that whether or not an immigration raid will occur at any specific school will be determined on a “case-by-case” basis depending on the national security threats posed by any illegals at said school.

“It shouldn’t be a chilling effect [on illegals] unless their child is a terrorist or a national security threat,” he said Monday on CNN. “They’re in the country illegally — they’ve got a problem. It’s not OK to enter this country illegally, it’s a crime.”

Vivek Saxena
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