(Washington) Tent atmosphere in front of an elementary school in a Washington district: for this first comeback since the return to power of Donald Trump, families of immigrants fear at any time police descents and expulsions.
“We are afraid of going out, we do not know what could happen to us, we are not safe,” said AFP Blanca, a Salvado-rings mother who refuses to give her surname, even less to say where the school of her children is in this district of the capital of the United States which houses a large population of Latin American origin.
On Monday, at the start of the end of the end of summer radiant in Washington, the district tightens its elbows to protect children and foreign parents in the risk of immigration police raids (ICE) that the administration of President Donald Trump launched, throughout the country, the kits of millions of people he says in an irregular situation.
Last week, the head of the ICE, Todd Lyons, assured well on the NBC News channel that his in civilian and masked agents would not target Washington schools on Monday. However, he recalled that “the objective” was to “find 300,000 undocumented children landed here under the previous administration” of Democrat Joe Biden.
“Feel safe”
Photo Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters
Last week, the head of the ICE, Todd Lyons, had assured that his in civilian and masked agents would not target Washington schools on Monday.
According to official estimates, Washington, a multicultural and deeply democratic city, is home to some 25,000 illegal immigrants, of a population of around 700,000 souls.
And although the city’s public schools never ask for the nationality of their students, the Washington Post had estimated in 2022, citing a local elected official, that there would be 3000 to 4000 undocumented schoolchildren.
In front of school, fear is palpable, even in the sound of whistles, drums and laughter of families on this back -to -school day.
An American woman of Mexican origin, who refuses to give her name, admits that she thought of not sending her daughter to school on Monday. Knowing that families of Latin American origin, legally residing in the United States, have sometimes been arrested, even expelled.
“It has nothing to do with your status, it has to do with your appearance. If you look like a Hispanic in the street, unfortunately you are a target, “she deplores AFP.
Convinced by her neighbors finally to send her daughter to school, she now reassures other student mothers: “Do not fear anything. Our kids who go to school need to feel safe and we will achieve it all together. ”
“Mandatory school”
At the other end of the country, in California, ICE raids in the spring caused a peak of absenteeism in schools in the most populous state in the country, governed by Democrats, according to the National Education Association.
But Jeffrey Freitas, president of the Federation of California teachers, recalls that the United States Supreme Court held in 1982 that no American state, whether democratic or republican, could prevent an undocumented child from going to public school.
So what the Trump administration “is doing is inhuman, trying to instill fear,” he denounces to AFP.
“The school is compulsory for each student in the United States,” insists the teacher.
Even within the very conservative Center for Reflection Heritage Foundation, close to Donald Trump, it is confirmed that “children, regardless of their migratory status, can go to public school, without risk, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court”.
But, adds to AFP one of its managers, Lora Ries, “if someone is illegally here, he must put himself in good standing with the law”.
