Baltimore’s first Latina council member calls for more protection from ICE near schools

Education officials, social workers and pediatricians described the last school year as one of escalating fear as immigration agents crept closer to schools and scared parents into keeping kids home.

The experts spoke at City Hall during a three-hour hearing on the impact of a federal immigration crackdown on Baltimore students. They described worsening anxiety and depression that are following students into classrooms regardless of their immigration status.

The hearing came after ICE detained parents on a Baltimore school campus in June. Jesus Acevedo Sanchez and his partner, Adriana Gavilan Sanchez, were taken into custody in the driveway of Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School as their daughters and other children watched. Federal judges have ordered the parents to be released.

Odette Ramos, the council’s first Latina member, said she’d like to see the city’s Safe Passage initiative expanded to more schools where they anticipate an increased ICE presence. That program, which began in 14 high schools last fall, positions adults in orange vests to supervise students as they leave school grounds at dismissal.

“I know that’s going to take some more resources, but I do think that’s where we are,” said Ramos, who wore an ICE OUT pin on her red blazer.

Baltimore City Public Schools officials noted changes they’ve made under the second Donald Trump administration, such as clarifying that all areas of school property are not open to the public during the school day and assuring students that accompanying a family member to court counts as an excused absence.

But school officials can’t keep ICE agents out of kids’ lives entirely.

Caryn Dayhoff, senior youth services coordinator for Baltimore-based nonprofit Asylee Women Enterprise, said when kids from immigrant families see immigration officials, it can trigger memories of traveling into the country or being detained while “reinforcing the false belief that they’ve done something wrong simply by existing here in our city.”

They’re spending more time isolated at home as families retreat from services, she said. Some parents have decided returning to the countries they fled is safer than staying here — “this is not normally the case, and this is not safe for them to do,” Dayhoff said.

Dayhoff warned that immigration concerns are “changing childhood itself.”

One of the adults responsible for those kids, Baltimore School Board Commissioner Kwame’ Jamal Kenyatta-Bey, has had his life disrupted, too. ICE agents took his brother-in-law into custody two weeks before his mother-in-law’s funeral. His brother-in-law couldn’t be with family during “one of the most painful moments in our lives,” Kenyatta-Bey told council members.

“Because of that experience, I come before you today not only as an educator but also as someone who understands personally how these issues reach far beyond policy discussions into the lives of real people,” Kenyatta-Bey said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.