Immigration agents detain an Acero parent on Southwest Side
A parent dropping off two students at an Acero charter school on the Southwest Side was detained Wednesday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to a letter from the charter network's leadership sent to parents.
In a letter to parents Wednesday, Acero officials said 'Community Wellness Protocols' were immediately implemented at two schools, Victoria Soto High School and Jovita Idar Elementary, which share a campus, to 'maintain the safety and security' of the schools' community. Chicago Public Schools' Office of Safety and Security was also engaged, according to the letter signed by the schools' principals, Elizabeth Obrzut and Nicolle Macias.
ICE agents did not attempt to enter either Soto High School or Idar Elementary, according to the letter. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The network of 15 charter elementary and high schools, said focused support will be made available for those impacted by the event, due to how 'stressful and upsetting' the situation may have been on the school's community, both schools will have additional social work support available for students, Helena Stangle, Chief Culture Officer at Acero Schools said in an emailed statement to the Tribune.
Acero 'has and will continue to share the Civil Rights Resource Hub with all of our school communities and regularly distributes information about stand-alone Know Your Rights opportunities.'
The school network's online information center, known as the 'Civil Rights Resource Hub,' is updated weekly and includes direct contact information for Acero staff members 'positioned to support our school community,' Stangle said.
Three officers were spotted outside the school Wednesday morning in normal-looking cars and clothes, said Evelyn Aguayo, a member of the rapid response team for the community organizing group Increase the Peace Chicago. Aguayo said photos of the agents circulated among response groups later in the afternoon.
The ICE arrest occurred about a month after CPS incorrectly reported that ICE agents tried to enter Hamline Elementary in Back of the Yards in late January. The two officers who tried to enter Hamline were later reported to be with Secret Service, not ICE.
Aguayo and her team have been working to disseminate Know Your Rights information to communities like Gage Park and Back of the Yards, she said. But after Wednesday's ICE arrest, she said that work is more urgent.
'These students have a right to be dropped off without trauma,' she said. 'I do think a lot of families are going to be scared to take their kids to school.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
5 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos faces detention hearing
BOSTON (AP) — A Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the United States faces a detention hearing in Massachusetts on Thursday. Kseniia Petrova, 30, has been in federal custody since February and is seeking to be released. Petrova was returning from a vacation in France, where she had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples for research. She was later questioned about the samples while passing through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint at Boston Logan International Airport. She told The Associated Press in an interview in April that she did not realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled. Petrova was briefly detained by immigration officials in Vermont, where she filed a petition seeking her release. She was later sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana. The Department of Homeland Security had said in a statement on the social media platform X that Petrova was detained after 'lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.' They allege that messages on her phone 'revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.' In May, Petrova was charged with smuggling in Massachusetts as a federal judge in Vermont set the hearing date on her petition. That judge later ruled that the immigration officers' actions were unlawful, that Petrova didn't present a danger, and that the embryos were nonliving, nonhazardous and 'posed a threat to no one.' The judge released Petrova from ICE custody, but she remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service on the smuggling charge. Colleagues and academics have testified on Petrova's behalf, saying she is doing valuable research to advance cures for cancer.
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Some Los Angeles families are skipping school graduation because they are afraid of ICE
At Palms Middle School in Los Angeles, the aggressive immigration crackdown that is dominating the city loomed over a joyous middle school commencement ceremony on June 10. A doleful Principal Arturo Enriquez told Angeleno families that parents and community members were stationed outside of the campus "ready to call me" if United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials showed up. "We are a melting pot of beautiful, incredible people," Enriquez said to the crowd before wiping a tear from his eye. "This incredible community, all of these students, all of these parents, guardians, friends and family, it is because of you that these young people are here ready to go on to that next step – to that high school life, to represent each of us as an incredible member of society." Some families too afraid to attend the graduation out of fear of increased presence of immigration enforcement officials across the city didn't hear the principal's message. They and many other Angeleno immigrants who live in the sanctuary city are foregoing the chance to witness their young loved ones receive diplomas or advance to the next grade at upcoming school graduation ceremonies out of fear of getting deported. "I've spoken with parents who've told me that their daughter would be the first in their family to graduate high school and they're not going to be there to witness it, because they have a fear of the place of graduation being targeted,' said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which covers the majority of the city and some surrounding areas of Los Angeles and serves more than a half of a million public school students, during a June 9 news conference. More than one-third of Angelenos are immigrants. ICE detained a Los Angeles fourth grader from Torrance Elementary School and his father in Texas on May 29. They are expected to be deported to Honduras. The young child's deportation has left a wound. 'When something like this happens, it shakes all of us in the community," Torrance Elementary PTA volunteer Ria Villanueva told The Los Angeles Times. Homeland security agents attemped to enter two Los Angeles schools in early April, but they were denied entry. Arrests of young people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are happening nationwide in other targeted American communities, such as Milford, Massachusetts, where an 11th grader's arrest and detention by ICE has heightened anxiety among the area's immigrants, and in New York City, where educations officials say ICE have recently arrested and detained two students. 'President Trump is keeping his promise to deport illegal aliens and the law enforcement officers conducting operations do so efficiently and professionally," said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, in response to a question from USA TODAY about the Trump administration's enforcement on immigration at and around schools. "Individuals, like the violent rioters in LA, who try to obstruct or deter operations put law enforcement officers and law abiding citizens at risk.' The Trump administration's increased immigration enforcement and related protests around LA Unified schools over the last several weeks have put parents, students and school officials on especially high alert. After law enforcement officers deployed flash-bang grenades against protesters near a Los Angeles Unified elementary school campus, the school community went into lockdown on June 6. The tensions have left the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the nation, at the center of the national battle on immigration deportations and family separations. Ahead of future graduation ceremonies in the district, Carvalho said he said he has directed Los Angeles Unified school police to stand at the front lines and "intervene and interfere with any federal agency who may want to take action during these joyous times that we call graduation." The Los Angeles families' anxieties come after a series of Trump administration-led anti-immigrant actions in the city, making it a national battleground for President Donald Trump's long-promised crackdown on illegal immigration. President Donald Trump and his administration have deployed thousands of National Guard members to the nation's second-largest city since June 8. The National Guard entered Los Angeles after citizens who were angry about immigration raids in the city, including one at a Home Depot, launched largely peaceful demonstrations against the administration's enforcement of illegal immigration. How did the LA protests begin? A look at the immigration raids that sparked outrage Chaos and violence have since erupted across Los Angeles, resulting in the detainment of some immigrants, destruction of city property and fear and hiding among immigrant families and children of immigrants who attend school across the region. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vehemently objected against the immigration raids and deployment of federal guards, even filing a lawsuit against Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth alleging they deployed "members of the California National Guard, without lawful authority, and in violation of the Constitution." "Instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders – a strategy both parties have long supported – this administration is pushing mass deportations - indiscriminately targeting hardworking, immigrant families regardless of their roots or risk, " Newsom, a Democrat, said in a video posted on Instagram. There's no sign that the immigration raids will end. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on X on June 9 that they will deploy about 700 active duty U.S. Marines to Los Angeles "to restore order." Trump has also threatened to arrest Newsom for challenging the federal government. 700 Marines Heading to LA; Newsom calls move 'deranged fantasy' of Trump A third-grade elementary school teacher in the district, who asked to remain anonymous because she is worried that her school and her students will be targeted by immigration enforcement officials if she is identified, said she has felt deep fear and constant anxiety in her students about them or their families being detained by ICE officials. She said many kids in her classroom whose parents are undocumented immigrants, some of whom are newcomers from Guatemala, are worried about being deported or separated from their families. Their fears have intensified since immigration raids have occurred close to the school. Attendance was unusually low and many school bus stops were eerily quiet during the last two days of school in her classroom on June 9 and 10, she said. "I try to pretend everything's normal when everything's falling apart outside of the school," she said. Her six-year-old son, who attends the same school where she teaches, found about about the immigration raids through friends and told her, 'Mom, I'm glad you have papers so they can't take you.' Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Carvlaho said in a statement on June 6 that he is "dismayed" by the recent immigration enforcement activity occurring near district schools. "These actions are causing unnecessary fear, confusion, and trauma for our students and families – many of whom are simply trying to get to and from school and work, and to live with dignity," Carvalho said. The presence of federal immigration activity near school campuses threatens prevents schools from being a "safe haven" where students "can learn, grow, and thrive without fear of being separated from their loved ones," he said. California State Superintendent of Education Tony Thurmond called Trump's military deployment and mass immigration raids "unnecessary," "a betrayal of our American values" and "an assault on all Californians" in a statement on June 9. Thurmond said about half of California kids have at least one immigrant parent. "Innocent children should never be in handcuffs, and families should never be torn apart by our government. Our children deserve to be protected and cared for, not terrified at school or ripped from their families," Thurmond said. "Let's be clear: When the President targets our immigrant families, he harms California's children." California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Thurmond have called on Trump to end the mass immigration raids and pull back National Guard troops from Los Angeles for the safety of Los Angeles families. 'My message to President Trump is very clear: keep your hands off California's kids," Thurmond said on June 9. "The President's unchecked, unnecessary deployment of our nation's military to the city of Los Angeles is deeply dangerous for our children, for our families, and for our country." The officials' sentiments haven't calmed the widespread fear among many of the city's vast immigrant communities. Britt Vaughan, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified school district, said that parents and community members have been anxiously calleing into schools to report federal immigration activity in their communities. Enriquez, from Palms Middle School, told students and their families at the commencement ceremony to use the momentum of graduation as an opportunity to stand up to what he called "injustice" against their community. "Be empowered. Injustices exist in the world," he said. "Speak up. Stand up against any injustice anywhere." Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fearing ICE, some LA families skip school graduations
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's federal troop deployment amid LA protests heads to court
(NewsNation) — Approximately 330 immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles since demonstrations against the Trump administration's federal immigration raids began Friday. That's according to the White House, which announced the arrest numbers Wednesday as the city prepared to enter its second day under a curfew enacted by LA Mayor Karen Bass. The epicenter of nationwide protests against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, LA's streets have been flooded with activists, looters and thousands of federal troops. LA County will comply with ICE if feds bring warrants: Supervisor The U.S. Northern Command said on Wednesday that 700 U.S. Marines had completed training and would be deployed to LA 'within the next 48 hours.' The Marines, like the National Guard, will be tasked with protecting federal officers and property under Title 10. More protests are planned through the weekend, including a 'No Kings' rally on Saturday. The event is part of a national network of events to counter Trump's pricey military parade in Washington, D.C. A federal court hearing has been scheduled for Thursday over the Trump administration's decision to send military troops into LA without a request from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The hearing will serve as a defining moment in the legal back-and-forth between Trump and California officials. Posse Comitatus Act: Does law allow Trump to send troops to LA? The Justice Department argues the administration has no obligation to consult with the governor before sending in troops, while Newsom's lawsuit cites a 19th-century law that makes it illegal to use federal troops for law enforcement on domestic soil — unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act. Where the 'No Kings' anti-Trump military parade protests are planned In Portland, Oregon, approximately 60 to 70 protesters demonstrated outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility into the night Wednesday, according to NewsNation affiliate KOIN. Local police said munitions were deployed by federal law enforcement when cars were leaving the facility, but things remained mostly peaceful following clashes Tuesday night. Omaha mayor doesn't 'know why' city was targeted in ICE raid In Indianapolis, around 1,000 people protested ICE raids outside game three of the NBA finals, NewsNation affiliate WTTV reported. The protests remained peaceful and broke up shortly after beginning. And in Baltimore, demonstrations took place across the city as protesters urged local leaders to protect immigrants from ICE. Again, the demonstrations remained peaceful. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
