Oklahoma teachers, lawmakers worry immigration raids could traumatize students

Yahoo

06-02-2025

Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters has been quite public about his support for President Donald Trump's immigration policies, even if that means federal immigration authorities want to raid Oklahoma schools to do so.
The possibility of armed officers pulling a student, or an adult, out of a school over a question of immigration status — and the emotional and mental trauma that might cause to children who witness such a scene — gives many lawmakers and educators pause.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the executive director and co-founder of MomsRising, a national advocacy group with a focus on issues concerning women, said she believes Trump's immigration policies, especially those that would remove long-term, established undocumented immigrants from the U.S., harm students and teachers across the nation.
'We are hearing from people that many children are terrified that if they go to school, their parents won't be there when they come home,' Rowe-Finkbeiner said recently during an online forum conducted by the American Federation of Teachers. 'That's no way to learn. We're hearing from people that many students, indeed, whole classrooms, are terrified that their close friends who are students, won't be at their desks tomorrow. None of this is OK.'
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Christopher Clark, a high school history teacher in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, said his first long-term job was working for a charter school with a high Latino population.
"I am sure I had many students who were undocumented or had family members who were," Clark told The Oklahoman. "It was a question I did not ask because it did not matter. My job was to teach the students who were enrolled in my classes. I do not believe it is my place to know the immigration status of my students now unless they want to share it with me. Schools need to be a place where students feel safe so they can concentrate on their studies and learn how to prepare themselves for life after secondary education, be it in college, trade school, the military or the work force."
Walters routinely spoke to reporters in a news-conference setting after monthly Oklahoma State Board of Education meetings through last August, until recently not doing so. He looked like he wouldn't do so in January until multiple reporters asked for clarification on something Walters said during the meeting about his current administrative rules proposal that would require Oklahoma schools to collect immigration status not just of students, but their parents, as well.
In a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Plyler v. Doe, the court said all students had the right to enroll in public schools without regard to the immigration status of themselves or their parents or guardians. Walters has told cable network NewsNation that the Supreme Court 'got it wrong' in that decision.
Three times during the brief news conference after the Jan. 28 meeting, Walters sidestepped multiple opportunities to address the effect of his rule proposal, and of potential immigration raids, on students.
A reporter from online news outlet Oklahoma Watch first asked Walters, 'Are you concerned at all about the trauma to all kids in a public school if there were some sort of immigration enforcement, if law enforcement were to come in?'
Walters' reply: 'I do love that the media, you guys continue to focus in on, 'I can't believe that you're going to comply with federal law.' But federal law is clear — you participate with a federal investigation. If federal law enforcement comes into a school, or calls us to get information, we're going to work with them. President Trump and his team, which are doing a tremendous job to get illegal immigration under control, we will work with them, so if that's providing information, providing resources, providing personnel, we're going to do that. We're going to continue to obey federal law and work with law enforcement on any investigation.'
The reporter noted the question was about trauma to children, to which Walters replied, 'I think that answered it. You might not like the answer. … We're going to get illegal immigration under control. President Trump will make the determination on what illegal immigration policies look like, on deportation, and we're going to continue to work with him.'
A third time, the reporter asked if Walters was concerned if that could be traumatic to students. Walters answered: 'I am concerned about the impact of illegal immigration on education in Oklahoma. We're going to continue to get that under control.'
At a news conference the following day held by the Oklahoma Legislative Latino Caucus at the state Capitol, another reporter asked lawmakers the same question. Their responses differed greatly from that of Walters.
Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City, said imagining an immigration officer going into a school to pick up a child 'is just traumatic' to think about.
'Kids, at the end of the day, I mean, they need to be focused on their homework, on making sure that they're able to turn in their assignments, get their education, grow, and, like I mentioned, being able to achieve those dreams that they're looking for,' Alonso-Sandoval said.
Oklahoma ranked 49th nationally in the 2023 Kids Count annual report, in measures of economics, education, health, family and community.
'We're one of the worst when it comes to mental illness, especially among children, so this is only going to continue to exacerbate those issues that were already seeing within our schools,' Alonso-Sandoval said.
State Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman, another member of the caucus, said that her middle-school son was born in Yukon, 'but he looks like me. What's to stop him from being called out of his class?'
Menz said if something like that happened, it wouldn't be just her son affected, but also the children around him.
'So this doesn't just affect one or the other — it's everyone,' Menz said. 'And when questions like yours go unanswered by the people who are responsible for these ideas, that really raises a flag with Mama bears, and it should across the state, because it's not just my kid or their kids or someone else's kid. It's not the 'other.' It's all of us, and this is something that will affect all of us for future generations.'
Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, isn't a member of the Latino caucus but did teach at a middle school in southwest Oklahoma City that serves a predominantly Latino community. Since Trump's election, Rosecrants said he steadily has heard from worried former students, and he questions Walters' motives with the administrative rule.
One thing Rosecrants said should be discussed more is that 'these students are American citizens. I didn't even know that when I first got there (to teach). It's some of their parents that may not be, but (the students) were born in America. Yes, (Walters is) trying to get the parents to do that insidiously. He wants them to self-report or whatever, 'just for numbers.' Bro, we know what you're trying to do, because you don't hide it.'
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: ICE raids in schools may traumatize students, Oklahoma teachers say