Detroit Mich.—“Yesterday, ICE took my next-door neighbor. He’s a little old man who’s been here for years, has never been involved in anything illegal, except he has no papers,” one neighbor told me. A resident of Southwest Detroit said: “ICE is going door to door and knocking on the door of each house in here. At Prince Valley Super Market they stopped everyone, customers and store employees. I think each ICE office has some ridiculous quota of 3,000 arrests per day.” I’ve heard two others say they were knocking on doors. Another neighbor said that ICE is not knocking on doors in Southwest Detroit. It may be certain blocks where they already plan a target raid. At the same time, rumors are spreading. So if door knocks are being exaggerated, it’s good to know that. Social media can help and harm.
EVERYONE’S AT RISK
ICE Special Agents arresting people during a raid. Photo: U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, public domain.
So much for rounding up hardened criminals, gang members and murderers. No one is fool enough to think that it’s merely people who crossed the U.S. border illegally who are the only targets. Anyone who speaks Spanish, looks Arabic, has a foreign-sounding name is at risk. All of Southwest Detroit, a mixed neighborhood with Spanish- and Arabic-speaking residents, is on edge.
On Jan. 23 Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) Superintendent Nikolai P. Vitti issued a memo on “Sanctuary District Policy and Recent Immigration Executive Orders by the President.” It was addressed to “DPSCD Staff, Families, and Students” and said:
“Detroit Public Schools Community District remains committed to protecting the rights of all students to have access to a free, public education regardless of a child’s or family member’s immigration status. This commitment comes to you directly from our School Board and me…
“As District employees, please report any engagement of immigration officials regarding our District, any school, families, or students to your respective principal or District supervisor…
“These are certainly difficult times for our immigrant families and those of us who support them. Please be assured that as a District we will always do everything within our influence and authority to protect and advocate for ALL our students and their families!!!”
It was signed: “With love, concern, and respect…”
Since 2019, the state Department of Education has held:
“A reasonable argument could be made that such enforcement in or on the perimeter of schools, were it to materialize in Michigan, would disrupt the education of some of our students, would make it less likely that these children would attend school consistently, and would therefore undermine their Plyler[1] rights to a free public education. All students have a right to a free public education regardless of their citizenship, immigration status, race or national origin. As educators, we have a responsibility to protect that right.”
FEAR AND ANXIETY STALK THE SCHOOLS
Although these memos cite disruptions from ICE enforcement to “some” students, fear, anxiety and anger is felt by ALL the children, staff and families. If states can pass laws against teaching Black history because it makes “students feel uncomfortable,” how much more uncomfortable will armed agents forcibly removing someone, or just marching through the school, make everyone feel? How much fear, how much anxiety, how many nightmares are they causing with even one such action?
In a Southwest elementary-middle school, student absences are already elevated. Seventy percent of the students are Spanish-speakers, as well as several staff and teachers. Recently during “free time” some seventh-grade boys shared views of their houses in their home countries on Google Maps. Information on rights and resources has not yet been widely circulated.
Meanwhile communities are gathering resources and planning activities. The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center has excellent detailed digital booklets in many languages like “Preparing Your Family for Immigration Enforcement,” training programs for educators and lawyers, and Power Points in English and Spanish. Surprise! They have run out of their print copies!
The sooner we gather, share solid information and plan to actively support people when and where we can, more people can be helped. There’s no time to waste. Stay tuned.
–Susan van Gelder
Granddaughter of immigrants
[1] The United States Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe (457 U.S. 202 (1982))