By Bianca Vázquez Toness / AP Education Writer

Last time Donald Trump was president, rumors of immigration raids terrorized the Oregon community where Gustavo Balderas was the school superintendent.

Word spread that immigration agents were going to try to enter schools. There was no truth to it, but school staff members had to find students who were avoiding school and coax them back to class.

“People just started ducking and hiding,” Balderas said.

Educators around the country are bracing for upheaval, whether or not the president-elect follows through on his pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Even if he only talks about it, children of immigrants will suffer, educators and legal observers said.

If “you constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really inhibits peoples’ ability to function in society and for their kids to get an education,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at UCLA School of Law.

That fear already has started for many.

“The kids are still coming to school, but they’re scared,” said Almudena Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools, a Boston suburb that’s long been a first stop for Central American immigrants coming to Massachusetts. Now Haitians are making the city home and sending their kids to school there.

“They’re asking: ‘Are we going to be deported?’” said Abeyta.

Many parents in her district grew up in countries where the federal government ran schools and may think it’s the same here. The day after the election, Abeyta sent a letter home assuring parents their children are welcome and safe, no matter who is president.

Immigration officials have avoided arresting parents or students at schools. Since 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has operated under a policy that immigration agents should not arrest or conduct other enforcement actions near “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and places of worship. Doing so might curb access to essential services, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a 2021 policy update.

More than two dozen superintendents and district communications representatives contacted by The Associated Press either ignored or declined requests for comment.

“This is so speculative that we would prefer not to comment on the topic,” wrote Scott Pribble, a spokesperson for Denver Public Schools.

The city of Denver has helped more than 40,000 migrants in the last two years with shelter or a bus ticket elsewhere. It’s also next door to Aurora, one of two cities where Trump has said he would start his mass deportations.

When pressed further, Pribble responded, “Denver Public Schools is monitoring the situation while we continue to serve, support, and protect all of our students as we always have.”

Like a number of big-city districts, Denver’s school board during the first Trump administration passed a resolution promising to protect its students from immigration authorities pursuing them or their information. According to the 2017 resolution, Denver will not “grant access to our students” unless federal agents can provide a valid search warrant.

It’s similar to the Clark County School District (CCSD)’s 2017 resolution that the district of about 300,000 students in Southern Nevada reshared last Friday. 

“CCSD schools are safe places for all students and their families,” the district said in a statement. “The district does not report undocumented immigrants to authorities, nor does CCSD ever ask students or parents about their immigration status.”

The state’s second largest school district, Washoe County, shared its own resolution, also passed in 2017, that states that confidential counseling would be provided to all students and staff who are fearful about how deportation threats could affect them and their loved ones, and refer them to organizations that could provide them with information on their legal rights and responsibilities.

The rationale has been that students cannot learn if they fear immigration agents will take them or their parents away while they’re on campus. School districts also say these policies reaffirm their students’ constitutional right to a free, public education, regardless of immigration status.

Like Denver’s, CCSD’s resolution includes language that the district will cooperate with, and even assist, authorities if there’s a warrant, subpoena or court order. 

The Nevada Independent contributed to this report.