A fourth grader in Hillsboro says she has been afraid immigration agents will storm into her school ever since the Trump administration revoked long-standing policies that prevented U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making arrests in schools.
The young Hillsboro School District student vividly outlined her fears in a recent hand-written letter to U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, who read the letter aloud on the House floor Tuesday morning.
“I feel scared and distracted in class sometimes because I’m worried ICE might come into our school,” the fourth grader wrote. “I worry what might happen to me if I refuse to answer their questions to protect my friends and classmates.”
A policy preventing unapproved ICE arrests in sensitive locations, such as schools, churches and hospitals, had been in place since 2011 and was further expanded by the Biden administration in 2021. Those policies, however, were quickly undone soon after Trump returned to office. Those actions are part of the administration’s promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.
In her letter, the young student wrote that she worries ICE agents might try to talk to her on her “bus ride from school.” The fourth grader says she worries about herself, her classmates and her neighbors, and has pondered several questions.
“Some of the things I worry about are, do I hide my friends if they’re getting taken? If ICE enters my school and takes someone, what will the school do? If ICE takes my classmate, what should I do? Where does ICE take people?” she wrote. “And what do I do if my friends come home to an empty house because their family got deported? I wish I didn’t have to worry about these things.”
A copy of the hand-written letter by a fourth grader in the Hillsboro School District.Copy of letter provided by Rep. Bonamici's office.
The fourth grader said she also wishes her friends, classmates and neighbors didn’t have to worry about those issues either.
“This administration said they were going to go after dangerous criminals and drug dealers,” Bonamici said after reading the girl’s letter. “But what they’re doing instead, with this disastrous mass deportation effort, is creating fear and stress across the country, including among young children.”
The Trump administration has already forcibly removed several people it alleged to be gang members to a third country – El Salvador – though several news reports have found many of those removed from the U.S. had no criminal records.
Bonamici, like the student, said she also wishes she didn’t have to worry about the fear the Trump administration is creating across communities, and “so should anybody in this body with an ounce of compassion.”
“These are kids,” she told lawmakers. “Let that sink in.”
Bonamici said it’s “disturbing” and “ironic” that her Republican colleagues pass legislation they say is intended to protect students, “but in fact do nothing to address the real challenges children are facing in schools today.”
“The majority is willing to pass a bill to protect students from the Chinese Communist Party, something no parent or educator has ever mentioned to me, but not willing to address gun violence, increasing behavioral health needs,” she said before reading the Oregon student’s letter, “or importantly, the stress and fear that the Trump administration has created by giving ICE free range to raid sensitive locations,… including schools.”
--Yesenia Amaro is an investigative reporter with a focus on social issues and communities of color. Do you have a news tip related to immigration, deportations or publicly funded programs designed to help immigrant Oregonians? Get in touch, 503-221-4395; yamaro@oregonian.com.
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