Salt Lake, Ogden schools say immigrant students are welcome after Trump flips policy on raids

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake City and Ogden school officials are reassuring immigrant students that they're welcome despite immigration policy changes.
The Trump administration rescinded a policy dating to 2011 that had prohibited most immigration enforcement action in schools and churches.
"Your child and every child, regardless of immigration status, is welcome and safe in our schools," reads an Ogden School District statement.

SALT LAKE CITY — Following the Trump administration's reversal on prior U.S. policy against carrying out immigration action at schools, Salt Lake City school officials are scrambling to determine the repercussions to the district's "safe school" resolution.

The Salt Lake City School District's legal adviser "is working to figure out what exactly the new guidance means to us and what the implications may be," said Yándary Chatwin, the district spokeswoman. Ogden School District officials just last week reaffirmed their own "safe school" resolution, meant as a reassurance to immigrant students and families given fears of the potential for immigration raids.

Whatever the case, officials from both districts are offering assurances that immigrant students are welcome at their schools and children in the country illegally have the right to attend public schools. "Your child — and every child, regardless of immigration status — is welcome and safe in our schools. Undocumented children and young adults have the same right to attend public primary and secondary schools as U.S. citizens and permanent residents," reads a message sent Wednesday to Ogden School District students and families, similar to a message sent by the Salt Lake City School District.

Prior policy dating to President Barack Obama's administration aimed to ensure that U.S. immigration raids and enforcement actions weren't "focused on sensitive locations such as schools and churches" except in certain dire circumstances. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, oversees the enforcement of U.S. immigration law. A 2011 policy document states that exceptions include instances when there is "an imminent risk of death, violence or physical harm" and when national security is at risk.

Under the new policy — one of several changes by President Donald Trump meant to crack down on illegal immigration — the prior guidelines are rescinded and action is allowed at schools and churches. As characterized in Tuesday's announcement of the change, however, the focus of any raids or other enforcement action would be criminals. "Common sense" would guide actions.

"This action empowers the brave men and women in (the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency) and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including (murderers) 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," the announcement reads. "The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."

Chatwin, like Ogden school officials, said Salt Lake City schools are still open to all students regardless of their migratory status, notwithstanding the policy shift implemented Monday, the first day of Trump's second term. Both districts have sizable populations of Hispanic and English-language learners.

"There's always concern with the unknown," Chatwin said. "What we do know has not changed is that our schools remain welcoming spaces, and every student, no matter their immigration status, is entitled to receive their education in our schools. So we are committed to that."

Despite the assurances, letters sent to family and students in both districts acknowledged that the new Department of Homeland Security policy may cause unease. The messages also noted that officials in each district don't collect information about the immigration status of students or their parents. "We know this is a concern for many in our community and want you to know we are aware of this policy change," reads the letter from the Salt Lake City school system.

Both the Ogden and Salt Lake City school systems implemented "safe school" resolutions in 2017, during Trump's first term, amid jitters about possible immigration enforcement actions against students in the country illegally. Salt Lake City school officials reaffirmed their resolution last December following Trump's victory in the presidential race and his talk of bolstering deportations. Ogden school officials reaffirmed their resolution just last week, on Jan. 16.

"We want to make sure that our community knows that we keep safety at the forefront for all our students, and we wanted to share that with our families and students," said Arlene Anderson, vice president of the Ogden school board.

The resolutions emphasize that both districts are welcoming places to kids, regardless of their migratory status. The Ogden resolution asks that ICE officials give seven days' notice of any "visit" to school grounds, among other things. The Salt Lake City resolution says the district won't allow access to students "unless required by law" and will take steps to protect students' rights.

As Ogden officials debated their resolution last week, one Ogden school board member questioned how much impact it would potentially have. "I just think we're stating things in the document that aren't legally binding. So are you giving false assurance?" said Jennifer Zundel.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.