At many schools including Eleanor Roosevelt High School, students are facing the impact of increased immigration enforcement in 2025, which has created fear and uncertainty in classrooms. ICE’s actions not only target immigrant families but they also affect peers, who see their friends struggling with anxiety and disrupted learning. With new laws and stricter policies, the threat of ICE has become a daily concern, hindering education and leaving many to wonder who might be confronted next.
In her article “The Trauma Immigration Raids Leave in Classrooms” Senior Writer and Editor Brenda Álvarez,, shares details of the effect ICE causes on schools and students. In January 2025, the fear of ICE escalations hit close to home at a Texas elementary school. A mother waiting for her fifth-grade son panicked when he didn’t walk out with his classmates. “She was so upset, asking: ‘Where is he? Who took him? Why is he not here?’ You could tell where her mind was going,” recalled teacher Maricruz Martínez. The boy had only stopped at the restroom, but in today’s climate, even a short delay can trigger thoughts of raids, abductions, or deportations. This constant anxiety shows how immigration enforcement spills into classrooms, where families, teachers, and students are left to carry the weight of fear. Educators say these assaults—ranging from aggressive enforcement tactics, to the mere rumor of ICE presence—are becoming more common. For schools, that fear leads to lower attendance, disrupted learning, and long-lasting emotional harm that students bring with them every day.
Beyond just education, ICE activity can cause mental health issues with kids. Allison Bassett Ratto, a child clinical psychologist in Washington, D.C says that “What is particularly worrisome to me as a child psychologist is that the stress, the anxiety and the trauma that develop in this climate of fear and uncertainty around immigration enforcement can become chronic, leading to both immediate and long term damage to children’s mental and physical health.” With the already ongoing mental health crisis, the stress from worrying about being taken away by ICE is not helping students. Post Covid-19 math and reading scores across the nation have already hit an all time low and this will only make things much worse.
At ERHS, teachers see these effects firsthand. Mr. Kendrick Trader, US History teacher at ERHS, explained that ICE’s presence has reached into his own classroom: “Yes, last year it directly affected” at least one “student’s grades due to anxiousness and fear.” He added that the uncertainty goes beyond one child’s experience: “It creates uncertainty in society within the learning environment because of the large number of students within the community who belong to a targeted group.”
Despite these challenges, Mr. Trader emphasized that his classroom remains a place of safety and fairness: “Within my classroom, everyone is treated equally. There are certain inalienable rights all human beings have, and those rights will be protected—especially within my classroom.” Still, he expressed concern that ICE’s policies are not random but rather fueled by a form of discrimination or targeting a certain group: “Yes, due to racial biases that the new administration has, which target certain demographics of our population.”
Students, too, are grappling with the presence of ICE in their lives. Elroi Guevera, an 11th Grade student at ERHS says “I think ICE is a federal organization that detains or harasses people who don’t have documentation. They’re supposed to deal with national security, but instead they’re creating fear for families.” Students have this impression of ICE that shows abusiveness and “harass[ment].”
While not all students have been directly affected, the threat still weighs heavily. “People I know have not been affected directly by ICE, but there definitely is a fear that ICE may target them because of their race and skin complexion,” said an anonymous student in the 11th grade. Others described how classmates avoid school to protect themselves and their families. “My own education is not affected by the increase of ICE activity, but I know many other families are affected because of the fear of being deported and separated from family members and friends, so they end up skipping school, or go to school stressed and worried about their safety and the safety of their close ones.”
Students also expressed concerns about ICE’s motives, suggesting that immigration enforcement has become political. One explained, “ICE’s motive is to deport as many people as they can to meet Trump’s quota. They do this by targeting people of color and even capturing law-abiding family members.” Another added that international students, particularly those on visas who are active in protests, feel especially vulnerable: “Trump is using ICE to enforce his agenda against education.”
ICE’s enforcement tactics have been described as “illegal” in many cases by the NIJC “National Immigration Justice Service,” further fueling criticism. Fear of raids doesn’t just impact immigrant students—it spreads across entire classrooms, making peers anxious and lowering attendance. In 2023, ICE conducted over 142,000 arrests nationwide, many in or near schools and neighborhoods where students live. Studies from the Stanford Report show that in districts with high immigrant populations, attendance can drop by as much as 22% in California school districts when rumors of ICE raids spread. While these numbers provide useful context, they still don’t capture the full emotional toll students face in their daily school lives.