Los Angeles school officials this week turned away federal agents looking to do welfare checks on migrant students in the district.
The students at the center of the controversy are unaccompanied minors who arrived illegally in the U.S. Government officials stress that welfare checks are necessary to ensure the children aren’t being sex trafficked or otherwise mistreated or abused. Approximately 320,000 unaccompanied minors illegally immigrated into the country during President Joe Biden’s administration and the Department of Homeland Security during the current administration is attempting to locate and identify the children to ensure their well-being.
According to the Los Angeles Unified School District, three to four Department of Homeland Security agents visited two different LA area elementary schools to check on a handful of students who entered the country illegally as unaccompanied minors.
In a press conference on Thursday, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the district implemented protocols to prevent school officials from cooperating with federal law enforcement in anticipation of the 2024 election and the incoming Trump administration.
Carvalho, who said he came to the U.S. illegally from Portugal as a minor, alleged that the agents claimed in both cases that they were there to visit with the students at the authorization of caretakers.
“We have confirmed that that is a falsehood,” he said. “We’ve spoken with the caretakers of these children … and they denied any interactions with these entities and certainly deny providing authorization for these individuals to have any contact with these children at the school.”
“My very first question starts there: what interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first grader, or a second grader, a third grader, or a fourth grader for that matter?” Carvalho said.
The principals “did the right thing” by denying access and asking for identification, SUP continued, adding: “No federal agency has the authority, short of a judicial warrant – that means the equivalent subpoena – to enter our schools.”
But DHS said the agents were part of its investigations unit, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The agents “were at these schools conducting wellness checks on children who arrived unaccompanied at the border. This had nothing to do with immigration enforcement,” DHS told the Associated Press.
“DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked,” the agency added.
