California issues campus guidance on ICE; agency denies raids

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

California officials are pushing back against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under new guidance aimed at protecting students on campus, while ICE insists it does not raid schools.

This past week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta updated guidance for students and educators on what to do when ICE agents approach them.

Students and faculty “may not provide personally identifiable information of a student to immigration authorities unless provided with a judicial subpoena, judicial warrant, or court order,” the guidance booklet stated.

“I know many California teachers and administrators are wondering how best to protect their students amid the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate, callous mass deportation campaign,” said Bonta. “California cannot interfere with federal immigration enforcement, but we can and have chosen not to assist with the President’s inhumane agenda.”

As the Trump administration expands deportation efforts nationwide, concerns about immigration continue to rise across California schools.

With this growing public concern, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pushed back on reports of ICE activity in schools.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the media attempts to “create a climate of fear and smear law enforcement,” arguing that such criticism has contributed to a “1,000% increase in assaults” on ICE officers. She emphasized that “ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools. ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children.”

While ICE may act in rare cases involving threats to public safety like dangerous criminals fleeing onto a campus or a child sex offender working at a school, “this has not happened,” McLaughlin added.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Bonta announced a new online portal, oag.ca.gov/ReportMisconduct, for California residents to submit videos, photos and information to the California Department of Justice regarding potentially unlawful activity by federal agents and officers across the state. Bonta’s remarks at the conference were previously reported by The Center Square.

“This new portal gives Californians an easy and safe way to speak up, share what they see, and help us hold people accountable. No one is above the law,” Newsom said.