DETROIT — Anxiety over the national immigration crackdown is finding its way into some Michigan classrooms as districts navigate how to handle parents who have been detained or students with their own citizenship status issues.

In Clarkston last month, the school district locked down its buildings for an hour as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials searched the area for multiple people, causing brief worry that ICE had tried to enter the school looking for a teacher or student, though a district spokeswoman said that wasn't the case.

In Southwest Detroit, teachers have been asked to write letters of support for their students' parents when they are detained by immigration officials, and kids have come to school having seen a parent arrested the night before.

And in Washtenaw County, a teenager was nearly detained as she was on her way to school in February, saved only by a call to her immigration attorney, who was able to intervene and confirm she had protected status.

As the Trump administration continues its crackdown on immigration enforcement around the country, some Metro Detroit schools are being forced to manage fears of parents, students and staff, develop new protocols and policies, while also managing the fallout when someone is detained. Meanwhile, districts also still have to comply with local, state and federal laws.

County prosecutors and state and local advocacy organizations have issued guidance on how schools should be proactive in developing plans of action. Advocates say school officials do not have to comment on a student's immigration status, information some districts say they don't track anyway.

Still, some are calling on their schools to do more, including places like Detroit, where the Detroit Public Schools Community District has labeled itself a "sanctuary district." At a recent Detroit board of education meeting, more than two dozen called on the district to do more staff training when it comes to navigating immigration concerns and provide more resources.

"We're getting calls still from folks who are detained after dropping their kid off at school or around the block, around the corner from a school," said Christine Suavé, the policy, engagement and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy center serving low-income immigrants.

Previously no-go zones

Approximately 300,000 Michigan kids live in immigrant families, where at least one person was born outside the U.S. Of these, 70,000 are Michigan high school students — 15% of all Michigan high schoolers, according to a 2023 study commissioned by Global Detroit, a nonprofit committed to economic growth through immigrant inclusion.

As far as immigration enforcement, schools used to be essentially no-go zones, said Suavé. That changed under the Trump administration, although operations happening directly on school grounds have been extremely limited nationwide.

"We anticipated how much fear and worry that would cause, and we're seeing that bear out," she said.

It was her organization's attorneys that intervened in Washtenaw County, sparing a 16-year-old from being detained.

Suavé said the organization has not received any direct reports of immigration enforcement happening on school grounds, "but we have had cases near school."

That alone is causing enough fear for parents not to want to drop their child off or pick them up from school, she said, if there is any question of their own immigration status or the status of someone in their family.

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, in partnership with the ACLU of Michigan, issued a 16-page guidance document in January for schools on how to address various immigration-related concerns.

"Educators have reached out to us with questions about how best to serve their immigrant students, what is required to meet their legal obligations, and what they can do to ensure that schools will remain safe places for all children to learn and grow," the document reads.

It outlines students' rights and schools' duty to protect student information, regardless of immigration status.

Suavé said it's important for schools to develop a protocol and to train staff on what to do if ICE or any other law enforcement agency enters a school seeking a student or staff member. She said schools only have to comply with a judicial warrant, but it should not be up to front desk staff to make that determination. Staff members should notify a school leader, usually the principal, who should immediately notify the district's legal counsel, who are qualified to review any paperwork a law enforcement officer might have.

School staff should also not answer any questions about students or their families, she said.

"The schools could really face legal repercussions if they provide student information to immigration agents, especially that student information that's protected by law," Suavé said.

The guidance document also provides advice on how to provide a more welcoming school environment, including sending a letter to families about school policies, "and that the district is a welcoming place."

Sanctuary district

Bishop Corletta J. Vaughn, president of the DPSCD board of education, said that's why Detroit took on the label of a "sanctuary district" in 2019. The board passed a policy to affirm it would allow immigration or other law enforcement into schools only with a judicial warrant, and would not share student information.

"We are on top of it," Vaughn said. "I think we've done an amazing job to try to think through what could happen."

That didn't stop a few dozen people, including multiple teachers, from coming to the board's November meeting asking the district to do more, including offering training to more staff members, and connecting students, their families and staff members with more resources, including legal support, if they have immigration concerns.

"You can feel the presence of ICE every day," one Southwest Detroit teacher said.

But Vaughn said she believed the district already is addressing everything she heard that day. She noted the district had also recently created a pamphlet of resources to distribute in the community, and had broadened its virtual school program to accommodate any student whose family felt the need to stay home because of an immigration-related concern.

"We knew that they were going to try to get to our most vulnerable population," Vaughn said of ICE.

In the weeks after that meeting, two Detroit schools students, both 16, were detained when ICE entered a home looking for another person, according to several news reports. An 18-year-old Detroit student, Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, was detained and deported to Colombia in June.

Vaughn acknowledged there are limitations to what schools can do.

"Once our students get to school, they're safe," she said. "Getting there is not something we can manage."

Challenges of getting to school for immigrants

Kevin Piecuch, executive director and principal attorney for the Southwest Detroit Immigrant and Refugee Center, said the biggest danger is not being at school, but getting there, if a parent doesn't have a valid driver's license.

Piecuch said he gets calls from teachers in Detroit a few times a week saying a child's parent was detained.

"Of course the teacher is devastated, because it's a parent they know," he said.

He said often teachers are asked to provide a letter of reference to support that parent staying in the country. He encourages them to do it, if they want to.

Piecuch said schools could help support families by encouraging them to have a legal plan in place for what should happen to a child if one or both parents or guardians are detained.

But stopping the detentions from happening, he said, or having a legal remedy to stay in the country once being detained, is extremely difficult.

"We have a strong immigration enforcement team right now who is very committed and it's very hard to stop," he said. "The rules in place don't give a lot of options."

Other protocols in place

Other Michigan school districts have not used the "sanctuary" label, which is not a legally binding term, but still have some of the same protocols and protections in place as Detroit schools.

In Dearborn Public Schools, where about 45% of the district's 19,000 students are English learners, board President Adel Mozip said his district has protocols in place for handling the presence of any law enforcement officer who might enter a school, and does not collect students' immigration status information.

"We're primarily focused on education, educating the student," Mozip said. "As long as they're a resident of our school district, we're here to educate them."

District Communications Director David Mustonen said with such an extensive immigrant population in Dearborn, the district already has multiple partnerships with organizations that assist people new to the country or who are facing immigration concerns.

"Our role here is to provide instruction and education for students, and do that in a safe and welcoming environment for all students, and that's what we strive to do," he said.

In Clarkston, which was briefly locked down due to ICE activity in the area Nov. 19, Kelly Allen, the district's director of marketing and communications, said fear quickly spread in the community that ICE agents had come to the school. That was not the case, she stressed. If they had, she said, the school district would also not cooperate without a judicial warrant.

"We have our protocols set in place and we follow that protocol, we follow the law, we follow the paperwork," she said. "We certainly would get legal counsel involved."

Allen said she knows the fear is coming from a real place for many families, even if ICE coming into a school directly may be unlikely. She also noted, others may support the effort to track down individuals who are undocumented, no matter the location.

"I think certain individuals in the community may feel nervous that it could happen," she said. "I think other individuals think it's the right thing."

Allen said district staff is also trained on trauma-informed practices to be able to respond to anything a student might be dealing with when they walk into school, including a potential immigration concern in their family. Staff also have close relationships with families, particularly in the English language learners department, she said.

"If there were to be a child whose family was deported or they didn’t have anyone to go home to, we would be able to assist that child to make sure they had a safe place to be," Allen said.

For the most part, she said, concerns are being addressed on a case-by-case basis.

"We all want to make sure we are protecting our district and our staff and students and families," she said.

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