Leading up to the last presidential election, American voters heard the narrative that there were dangerous, criminal undocumented immigrants living among us, and they needed to be deported. However, recent federal immigration enforcement practices have gone far beyond finding and arresting “dangerous criminals.” It is to the point where even documented immigrants, including students, report fear of being questioned or detained because of their skin color, their accent, or the language they speak. Immigration enforcement no longer feels distant or targeted only at serious threats; for many families, it feels random, public, and unavoidable.
According to TRAC Immigration, an organization that uses public records to compile data on immigration enforcement actions, as of Nov. 29, 2025, 73.6% of people held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention had no prior criminal convictions. Among those who did, many were charged only with minor offenses such as traffic violations. These numbers challenge the claim that enforcement is focused primarily on public safety. They suggest, instead, a system that sweeps up large numbers of people whose only violation is related to immigration status.
We all know someone undocumented in the community, whether we know it or not. Recently, public attention has been drawn to incidents of violence related to immigration action, like the death of Renee Good, a mother of three and a U.S. citizen who was shot and killed in Minnesota. Immigration enforcement is also happening in our community. A father in Albany was detained immediately after dropping their student off at an elementary school. Maria Trinidad Loya Medina was detained by ICE agents from the parking lot of Big 5 on the morning of Jan. 10. These are not statistics; they are people whose absence is felt in classrooms, homes, and neighborhoods.
For many of our students, the fear of something happening to them, or their friends or loved ones, does not stop at the front door of school. Students bring it with them into class. They go to teachers or staff members they trust, asking what to do to protect themselves or their families, and where to find legal help.
When a student is worried about whether a parent will be home at the end of the day, schoolwork becomes secondary. Fear affects concentration, memory, and motivation. Over time, it shows up as lower grades, missed days, and emotional withdrawal, but often the true cause is the stress and worry being carried mentally by the student. A school cannot fully succeed when part of its student body is living in constant uncertainty.
It is easy to joke about or ignore immigration issues when you believe they do not affect you, but they do. It affects the friend sitting next to you in class, the families on your street, and the people who prepare your food, clean your school, or fulfil other important roles in our community. Even if you have never worried about being questioned or about a family member being detained, someone around you almost certainly has. Their stress does not disappear because it is unseen.
Immigration has been an issue in American politics from the beginning, from the Native Americans, to the arrival of Italians and Eastern Europeans, to the Chinese, to the Japanese during World War II. No matter how you feel about the current immigration crackdown, never forget that all immigrants are people, carrying the weight of worry daily. It is about classrooms, families, and whether young people feel safe enough to plan their futures. We just need to remember that humans are humans, and we should treat them that way.
