Guidance for Students, Workers, and Teachers Dealing With ICE

By Theo Meranze

As the Trump administration continues to target undocumented people, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activity is ramping up across the state. As a result, schools and other public spaces which house children are in increasing danger of being searched by immigration forces. Undocumented students are thus in danger of being detained and deported.

In response to these developments, students have begun organizing on campuses across L.A. county in the name of immigrant rights. Student walk outs, for example, have continued to occur across the city. Now more than ever, administrators, teachers, and protesting students need to know their rights and the best options they have for protecting undocumented students in their care.

We’ve compiled a list of pointers for dealing with ICE, student’s rights to free speech and protest, and advice from a teacher currently on the ground at a school in L.A. county.

Confronting ICE At Home, Work, and School

ICE, shorthand for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the branch of government tasked with enforcing Immigration law. ICE agents are government agents tasked with enforcing ICE policy. They can conduct immigration related detainments, and can enter schools or other residencies if given a search warrant.

United Teachers Los Angeles, in a recent know your rights training, laid out a comprehensive list of guidelines for dealing with ICE agents at home and at school. Here are some important highlights.

If approached by an ICE officer at your door,

Do not open the door (not even with the security chain)
Ask the agent/officer to slide their order under your door and verify that it is signed by an immigration judge
If immigration agents enter your home without your permission, tell them you do not give them permission to enter your home or search your belongings
Do not sign any documents before speaking to an attorney

Here are some guidelines for dealing with ICE at worksites (this includes schools):

Every worksite might have different protocols, but the goal is to minimize the contact employees have with immigration agents
The immigration agents need to have a search warrant (signed by a judge)
If the agents only present an “Administrative Warrant” (not a court ordered warrant signed by a judge), your employer is not obligated to give them permission to enter the workplace
Keep calm. Do not run or try to escape! (This will give the officers probable cause to arrest you)
Have copies of “red cards” for staff (red cards are cards that remind their owners of their rights, typically distributed by immigrant advocacy groups)

According to the recently released guidelines from the LA county library:

“It is unlikely that ICE agents would enter a public library and announce that they are seeking out a particular individual and have a warrant for their arrest; if ICE enters a library facility, ICE does not need to show a warrant to access the public areas of a public building. Public areas include community rooms and Adult Literacy Centers, regardless of room activity (activities).

If you become aware that ICE has entered a library building, do not interfere or impede their access in the public spaces of the library. Immediately report that ICE agents are in the building to the City Attorney’s Office at (213) 978-8100, your Chain of Command and the Office of Civics and Community Services 213-228-7380.

When you call the City Attorney’s Office, identify yourself and the department you work for, provide a succinct description of what is happening and ask for the Deputy City Attorney on duty for client department immigration advice.”

Notably, it also states that “a library employee who observes an unusual interaction between an adult and an unaccompanied minor can inquire if the child/teen is ok and ask if you can be helpful or if there is a problem. In this case, a manager could ask the adult if they are law enforcement. If they say yes, you may ask for a name and identification number.”

Understanding Different Types of Warrants

Warrants are legal documents which justify the search of a residence or a building. They must be presented by ICE agents before entering a home or a school. When dealing with ICE, it is incredibly important to know the difference between an ICE/Administrative warrant and a Judicial Warrant. ICE will typically first try to present an ICE/Administrative warrant when attempting to enter a school or a residence. This kind of warrant, the ICE/Administrative warrant, is not signed by a judge. You are not legally required to let them in if they present one. You are only legally required to let them in if they have a Judicial Warrant signed by Judge. Here is a graphic that shows the difference. This applies to both schools and homes.

Student’s Rights When Protesting And Organizing

As thousands of students continue to organize and walk out in protest of ICE activity in L.A. county, we felt it important to provide a summary of student’s rights regarding freedom of speech and protest.

Your Rights	What Schools CANNOT Do	What Schools CAN Do
You have the right of Free Speech in school	Schools CANNOT stop you from passing out flyers, information, petitions, wearing badges, or writing articles in the newspaper.	Schools can stop you if your speech is: > obscene, libelous, or slanderous, or > creates the immediate danger of causing other students to violate the law or school rules, or > substantially disrupts school activities.
You have the right of Free Speech outside of school campus	You cannot be disciplined for free speech activities outside of school.	Schools can discipline you if you commit an act listed in the Education Code for which you can be suspended, while on your way to school, or leaving school. (see below)
You cannot be suspended for being truant, tardy, or absent	Schools CANNOT: > suspend you for simply walking out of school; > force you to attend Saturday school unless you were absent, tardy or truant three times in a school year; > suspend or expel a student for being truant, tardy, or absent without first imposing alternative punishments	Schools can suspend you if you commit an act listed in the Education Code while you were walking out. (See below)* > Schools can discipline you in other ways for being truant, tardy or absent such as detention, community service, or Saturday school. If you have a history of truancy, there can be more severe consequences such as an involuntary transfer or referral to a SARB. > Schools may impose alternative punishments for truancy and tardiness rather than suspension or expulsion.
You can only be suspended or expelled for those offenses listed in the Education Code	Schools CANNOT: > suspend you for being truant, tardy, or absent. >suspend you for exercising your free speech rights.	*The Education Code allows the school to suspend or expel you if you: > threaten, bully, fight, or hurt someone, or commit sexual harassment/ assault; > possess a dangerous object; carry, use or sell controlled substances, or tobacco, or paraphernalia; > damage/steal property, receive stolen property, robbery/ extortion; > commit an obscene act or use profanity a lot; > disrupt school activities or defy school official.
You should not be suspended if this is your first offense	Unless the act is serious, schools CANNOT suspend you for the first offense, and must offer alternatives.	Schools CAN suspend you if you disrupted school activities or defied the authority of school officials BUT ONLY if > other types of discipline were tried but failed (e.g. community service) or > your presence causes a danger to others or > your presence threatens to disrupt the instructional process
You have the right to Due Process when you are being suspended	Schools CANNOT suspend everyone simply because they walked out. They must decide whether YOU violated the Education Code. Schools must give you an opportunity to tell your side of the story before making the decision to suspend	Once they have allowed you to tell your side of the story and your evidence, they can suspend you for violations of the Education Code for up to five days. Schools must give you a hearing on whether the suspension should be erased from your record.

Testimony And Advice From A LAUSD Teacher

We spoke to an LAUSD teacher who gave these pieces of advice when asked about measures to protect students from ICE.

“For LAUSD specifically the district has a protocol for administration, a whole process that’s supposed to delay ICE from getting onto proper campus and looking for students through alerting everyone. You can ask your admin what their plan is, whether they’re going to contact the teachers when ICE enters campus and say where ICE is as well, etc.
I recently attended a training by Barrios Unidos, and they were saying that teachers with classrooms next door to each other, if ICE is on campus, can switch students so that when ICE comes in and asks for the kids names they can say they don’t know. Teachers can also quickly and quietly also get the student to the parent center to meet up with a parent, etc.
Building coalitions with other teachers to impede the investigation process in a non-illegal way is important.”

Here is a list of organizations working within and with schools to protect students rights provided by the teacher:

Students Deserve
MEchA
Progressive and Radical Teachers
Union de Barrios
UTLA