Sara arrived in the United States as a 7-year-old refugee when her family fled religious persecution in Bangladesh. Eleven years later, Sara now calls Montgomery County, Md., home. But if the Trump administration has its way, she would be immediately deported because of her undocumented status.
“If Trump deports me, there's nothing for me. I think I'll be in Bangladesh, married to some guy, doing housework,” said Sara, a high school student whose identity Sojourners is using a pseudonym for in response to her fear of drawing the attention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It’s a fear that follows her to school. Because of her immigration status, Sara is labeled a criminal by the administration, and ICE agents could come knocking on her classroom door to arrest her under Trump’s mass deportation policy.
“When [Trump] was first elected, we were all very shaken up and very scared. My mom was telling me to stay home and not go out,” she said. “When I do see cop cars outside, I just hide my face, and I walk away because of the fear it might be ICE.”
The Trump administration eliminated a policy that has limited migrant arrests in sensitive locations, including schools, churches, and hospitals, since 2011. While agents still need permission or a judicial warrant to enter property, the Department of Homeland Security allows arrests at these locations.
There is no evidence of ICE raids in schools yet, but the possibility of them happening has generated fear within immigrant populations. Over 500,000 undocumented immigrants live in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and attendance rates have dropped at local schools due to the fear of encountering ICE agents on school property or en route to school, according to Ryan McElveen, a Fairfax County Public Schools board member. School districts have taken measures to prepare for ICE on campus, but many vulnerable students still don’t feel safe at school.
Since the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump has attempted to fulfill his deportation promises through ICE raids across the country. ICE’s monthly arrests increased by 627% in February compared to 33,000 at-large arrests during the Biden administration in all of last year, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. Despite this, CBS reported on staffing changes at ICE, as the administration’s border czar Tom Homan said he was “not happy” with the low level of deportations.
According to guidance provided by the Immigrant Defense Project, an advocacy group, ICE agents may disguise themselves by dressing in police uniforms or plain clothes to identify and arrest migrants at their doors or in their neighborhoods.
“[Trump] is generating fear on purpose for that time-old goal of self-deportation,” said Crystal Malik, an immigration attorney based in Virginia. “He wants to take away humanitarian bases for immigration.”
Ilryong Moon, a board member of Fairfax County Public Schools, said they are “prepared to deal with whatever may come.”
Moon continued: “President Trump is going to be in his office for four years, which is a long time. We need to continue providing education to our students, no matter what their status may be, and we don't want students to not show up.”
Fairfax County Public Schools “took action almost immediately,” with training and guidance for principals, teachers, school administrators, and transportation providers who might encounter ICE agents, according to McElveen. Montgomery County Public Schools staff confirmed the school district took similar action.
Kayla, a documented immigrant in Montgomery County, said she attended an ICE simulation drill in her high school classroom guided by teacher initiative. Kayla is a pseudonym; Sojourners granted her request not to be named out of fear of retaliation from ICE agents.
“Our teacher showed us what we would do if ICE agents came, how we would lock the door and continue with class, and she explained our rights,” Kayla said. “I was like, ‘Wow, they care.’”
Schools are protected by federal privacy laws, and they cannot legally disclose private student information such as immigration status to federal agents. In addition, all students — including those who are undocumented — are protected by federal and state statutes prohibiting “discrimination on grounds of race, color, or national origin by education programs.”
ICE agents are also barred from entering school grounds without a valid judicial warrant. Information the county provided to Montgomery County Public Schools system staff said, “ICE currently does not have the ability in Maryland to detain juveniles in any of our schools in this area.”
School authorities from both Montgomery County and Fairfax County sought to assure their communities that they will operate within the bounds of the law and their school district policies to protect their students.
“I want to tell our community, our parents, our students, that they should continue coming to schools,” Moon said. “Our school system is not here to debate the immigration policy. We are here to provide education as required by law, our policies, and Constitution.”
Still, federal privacy laws also function as a double-edged sword. Schools are prohibited from inquiring about students' citizenship status, and therefore limited in what they can do to help undocumented students.
A staff member in the Watkins Mill Cluster in Montgomery County Public Schools said, “We don’t know who is or who isn’t undocumented. It makes it a little challenging, because you want to share things with students to say, ‘Hey, you're safe.’” Sojourners granted their request for anonymity due to fear of retribution by the school system.
Sara said she knows the school can only provide limited protection for her as an undocumented student. She felt frustrated with how her high school framed the situation in a letter that was sent out to students and families, she said. “[The high school] just told us, bring documentation with you and you'll be fine. If not, then you're not our problem.”
Despite her legal status, Kayla said she remained fearful of deportation by ICE.
“I think their goal is deportation regardless of my status,” she said. “It goes back to racial profiling, you won't see them going to a white person’s house, knocking.”
Immigrants like Sara and Kayla compose a significant population in the area. Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia's immigrant populations range from 13.2% to 17% according to the American Immigration Council. Residents said the area’s diversity made the area a magnet for more immigration, which is what makes the Trump administration’s threats to immigrants here distressing.
Threats to the most vulnerable group feel like a threat to all, said a Montgomery County Public Schools counselor, whose request to remain anonymous was granted by Sojourners due to the county’s policy against speaking to the press.
“I hope to see just more people standing up for what's right in all of this,” said Paulina Vera, professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.. “Like making it publicly known, the value that immigrants bring to this country, because they're obviously very much being villainized right now and terrorized. We need people to push back on that.”
Sara’s future remains uncertain as her family was reapplying for their asylum case with aspirations to eventually receive a green card. Sara could then live out her dream of becoming a radiologic technologist.
“If Trump doesn’t deport me, in ten years, I see myself working in a hospital, helping people,” she said. “My dreams haven’t changed, but I think my reality has.”
Jiah Choe is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a reporter at Medill News Service, where she covers immigration.
Norah D’Cruze is a sophomore at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a reporter at Medill News Service, where she covers politics.
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