By james art 
Every weekday, an undocumented immigrant named Cassandra walks her children to and from school in Orange County.
Now, that walk is scarier after President Donald Trump returned to office and signed a slew of executive orders in his first few days aimed at curtailing immigrant rights.
“It’s always a risk now to take my kids to school,” said the Santa Ana resident, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used because she fears deportation. “I might be caught walking my daughters to school or on my way home. But I do it because I know they will be safe at school.
She is like many other parents who worry about what will happen to their children’s education if they are deported under Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration and promises to impose “mass deportations.”
Across Southern California, school officials and immigrant advocates are working to reassure parents after the policy changes, which include a change that allows immigration officials to make arrests in schools and churches. They answer parents’ questions about how to keep undocumented children in school and safe. They offer resources such as “know your rights” cards. And despite the policy changes, they are assuring parents that they will not help Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials come to campus to pick up children or parents.
In California, 93 percent of children who have one or more undocumented parents are U.S. citizens, according to the California Department of Education.
Cassandra is one of nearly 3 million undocumented people in California, 34 percent of whom have at least one child under 18, according to the Migration Policy Institute. People from Mexico and Central America make up the majority of California’s undocumented population at 77 percent, with Asian immigrants the second largest group at 18 percent.
Fear and uncertainty took center stage this week at an immigration forum for parents and students in San Bernardino.
Many parents asked if schools would help ICE agents by telling them about undocumented students, what would happen to their children if they were deported and how to prepare children for the possibility of losing a parent back home.
Mauricio Arellano, superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District, which sponsored the event on Wednesday, Jan. 22, told the crowd of about 50 people that all children in the U.S. have the right to a free public education — regardless of immigration status.
“Their citizenship status has nothing to do with school enrollment,” Arellano said. “The law requires us to accept all school-age children.”
He said the law also does not allow schools to release “personal information” unless they are faced with a legal document such as an order signed by a judge.
Cassandra said her school district has been supportive and shared immigration resources. She came to the U.S. from Mexico seven years ago in search of a safer place to raise her children and find a job to support her family.
“There is too much politics in children’s education,” Cassandra said. “Lack of documents shouldn’t stop my kids from getting the education they deserve.”
Trump promised at a rally in New York before taking office that he would “launch the largest deportation program in American history to get criminals out” and vowed to “save every city that has been invaded and conquered.”
He and others say November’s election results show he has the support of most Americans on the issue.
Dave Everett, a policy consultant at Inland Empire, said the US needs to enforce its immigration laws.
“If you study other countries, they have much tougher immigration initiatives, and even Mexico has stricter immigration laws than the United States,” Everett said. “Do I agree that we should stick to the laws we have like any other country? Yeah, I mean, I don’t see why we shouldn’t follow our own laws.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials have laid out procedures for immigration officials who request information about students, families and staff, according to a statement from a district spokesperson. He began mandatory training for staff on how to respond if federal agents show up on or near campuses.
“The district has prepared ‘know your rights’ cards to hand out to students with instructions on how to respond if approached by immigration agents and has provided handbooks with additional resources,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Los Angeles school officials do not collect or share information about the immigration status of students and their families, the statement added.
Santa Ana Unified School District administrators are also working to train employees on how to respond if immigration officials arrive on campus. The district continues to offer resources and support for undocumented students and families, spokesman Fermin Leal said.
While there have been concerns since Trump’s inauguration, there hasn’t been an increase in concerns from parents, despite the city’s large population of undocumented residents, Leal said.
Those at the San Bernardino forum left with “know your rights” information in English and Spanish.
Such printable cards can be found on the websites of most immigration organizations. The referrals typically tell people they don’t have to talk to immigration officials, they have the right to remain silent, they shouldn’t answer the door if immigration agents knock and they shouldn’t sign anything without talking to a lawyer.
Although many Southern California educators worry about ICE pickups at schools and the possibility that such fears could keep kids out of school and increase absenteeism, one attorney put those concerns to rest.
“The safest place is at school,” Russell Jauregui, an attorney for the San Bernardino Community Service Center, told the children at the forum.
In California, undocumented residents can go to college, attend campus or community colleges in California and even receive state aid as long as they have attended a California high school for three years and meet all other aid requirements, Jauregui said .
The Trump administration announced Tuesday, Jan. 21, that it would end a policy in place since 2011 that prevented federal immigration agencies from making arrests in safe places like schools, churches and hospitals, some forum participants said the laws of California means it won’t continue in effect in the state.
“California is still a sanctuary state,” said Hector Pereira, policy manager for the Domestic Immigrant Rights Coalition. “SB54 is still in place, so we still have those protections.”
SB54, called the California Values Act, was passed in 2018. and designated schools as safe places where federal immigration enforcement cannot take place.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued guidelines this month that strengthened the law’s protections in public education, Pereira said.
Normally, federal law takes precedence over state law, but the Trump administration sued California over SB54 in 2018. and lost.
“SB54 does not prohibit the federal government from enforcing immigration law, it just says that the state of California will not help them do their job,” Pereira said. “This precedent is still the law of the land regarding California’s asylum policies.”
The court found the law consistent with the Tenth Amendment, Pereira said.
Bonta and immigration advocates pointed out that an ICE administrative order is not the same as one signed by a judge and can be issued by any authorized immigration official. California law also prohibits state and local law enforcement officials from asking for someone’s immigration status, according to the attorney general’s website.
The forum and other groups point to other proposals for immigrants.
These include babysitting affidavits that match the school’s emergency contact records, carrying “know your rights” cards and having an immigration attorney available. Such an affidavit ensures that the children have a trusted guardian to temporarily care for them if the parent is detained or deported, avoiding the chances of the children being placed in child protective services.
While criminal law gives everyone the right to an attorney, immigration law does not, Jauregui said.
Still, many immigration groups suggest that undocumented families seek an immigration attorney, who can be found at a discount or for free from organizations such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the San Bernardino Community Service Center — which serves low-income families in the Inland Empire — and Camino Immigration Services in Orange County.
“We have four more years of this administration, but this administration also has four more years of us,” Pereira said. “We will keep fighting.”
Staff writer Ariana Clay contributed to this report.