Every child should be able to go to school without fearing that immigration enforcement could separate them from their family or disrupt their education.

For decades, federal immigration enforcement policies treated schools as "sensitive locations," limiting enforcement actions at or near schools except under certain circumstances. In January 2025, the federal government rescinded those protections, opening the door to immigration enforcement in places that families depend on every day.

The stakes go beyond immigration policy. In Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court established that children cannot be denied access to public education based on their immigration status. The U.S. Department of Education continues to recognize that protection.

When families fear immigration enforcement around schools, children can lose meaningful access to that education. Educators have reported students staying home, parents avoiding school activities, and children struggling to concentrate because they fear that they or someone they love could be detained. In one Los Angeles middle school, an educator reported that 25 percent of students were absent following immigration enforcement activity in the community.

Schools should be places for learning .... not immigration enforcement.

We are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to restore strong nationwide protections limiting civil immigration enforcement at and around K-12 schools, including school grounds, school bus stops, and school arrival and dismissal areas, except where genuinely urgent public-safety circumstances require action.

Children should not have to choose between their education and their sense of safety.

Sign this petition and demand that DHS keep routine immigration enforcement away from schools and protect every child's ability to learn.