Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are not expected to be at schools in the nation’s capital when classes kick off on Monday, acting director Todd Lyons recently told NBC News.
Newsweek has reached out to ICE for comment via email on Saturday.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. The initiative has seen an intensification of ICE raids across the country, with thousands of people having been swept up, arrested, and detained. Shortly after taking office, Trump threw out Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies to limit where ICE arrests can take place, granting it the right to conduct raids in places of worship, schools, and hospitals.
The nation’s capital has been in the limelight over the past few weeks after Trump said on August 11 that the city had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” He has deployed federal troops, officers and agents to Washington, D.C., as part of a crackdown on crime and homelessness.
What To Know
As the school year is kicking off across the U.S., the first day of class for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) is on Monday, August 25. Lyons told NBC News in an interview earlier this week that “day one, you’re not going to see us,” but noted that there might be circumstances when ICE officers may need to come to schools in the future.
Lyons said one of those circumstances might be to conduct safety and wellness checks on students, stating, “We want to use our special agents and our officers to go ahead and locate these individuals. And if [there are] some we haven’t, and the last known address was at a school, we just want to make sure that child is safe. If we have the opportunity to reunite that parent with that child, that’s what we want to do.”
Lyons noted that under “exigent” circumstances would officers arrive at school, including “something violent going on.” Nationwide, there have been several ICE arrests of parents at school property, including one at an Oregon preschool. In addition, some students, including a teenage boy in Los Angeles, have also been detained.
A Stanford University researcher reported in June that ICE “raids increased student absences from schools because parents fear being separated from their children,” finding “recent raids coincided with a 22 percent increase in daily student absences with particularly large increases among the youngest student.”
ICE has repeatedly maintained that it’s targeting people without proper documentation and criminal histories, and is working to expand its force with an addition 10,000 agents. The agency received billions in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill.
What People Are Saying
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel said at a press conference this week: “I think people who have that concern for themselves personally and for all of us who are concerned for them and their safety are making adjustments.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a previous statement shared with Newsweek: “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe. Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest deportation operation of criminal aliens in American history.”
What Happens Next?
ICE is looking to significantly increase its force, offering signing bonuses up to $50,000, student loan payments, tuition reimbursement and starting salaries that can approach $90,000.
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