Congress Must Act to Protect Children from Terror and Intimidation
The recent ICE raid that detained nearly 700 adults who worked in food procession plants in Mississippi took place on the first day of school. Many children in that state, who themselves are citizens, returned from school to find that their parents were gone. While Mississippi schools are doing their best to ensure that children are not going home to an empty house, the stress and fear that children are experiencing are devastating.
To make matters worse, the raid took place just days after a domestic terrorist, using a K-47-style assault rifle, murdered 22 people at a Walmart store in El Paso, a Latino city on the Mexican border. Raids such as the one that took place in Mississippi not only break up families, they also serve to further incite violence by White Supremicists who are already emboldened by this Administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions.
The Network for Public Education strongly opposes the separation of immigrant children from their parents either at the border or as a result of workplace raids that round-up non-criminal, undocumented workers.
We call upon Congress to restrain ICE from seizing undocumented immigrants in the absence of evidence of criminality. Send your letter asking Congress to act by clicking here.
And we encourage schools to take steps to protect their students, and ensure they and their parents are well informed of their rights. Lastly, and sadly, we encourage school communities with immigrant populations, to work with parents and community members to protect and care for students who are traumatized as a result of raids and the threat of raids by immigration services. No child should live in fear or in the shadows. It is critically important that schools let immigrant families know that they provide a safe and protected environment for their children.