As students return to the classroom and begin a new school year, school leaders throughout the state are battling a new challenge — how to protect students and families from increasing immigration enforcement activity under the Trump administration.
In the first month of his presidency, President Donald Trump made it clear that school campuses — which had previously been considered “sensitive locations” and prohibited immigration agents — would not be exempt from his promise to carry out the largest mass deportation of immigrants in U.S. history.
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Many schools across the Bay Area and the state have already designated their campuses as safe havens from immigration activity and reassured families that they would not allow immigration officers on campus or release student data without a warrant. But educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District demanded more aggressive protections for immigrant families and district leaders heeded their call — beginning the new academic year with unprecedented policies to protect children and their families.
According to the L.A. Times, the district, which serves about 400,000 students, has partnered with local organizations and volunteers to set up safe-passage networks to ensure families can get to school with less exposure to immigration agents. The district is also utilizing school police, contractors and volunteers to serve as immigration scouts who will alert campuses of any nearby enforcement activity. Other efforts include a donor-supported compassion fund to help families with legal costs, food aid for families in hiding, legal referrals, family preparedness guides and online schooling options.
But despite similar calls from Bay Area families and advocates to implement stronger protections for students and their immigrant families, Bay Area schools have not followed suit.
Chris Nellum, executive director of educational consulting group EdTrust-West, said while L.A. Unified School District partnered with the community to take very public “practical, swift action,” he hasn’t seen that from Bay Area school districts and schools across the state can and should be doing more.
“We’re hoping that folks will look at LAUSD and then tailor what works for them here in the Bay,” Nellum said. “Despite how it may feel, state districts and school leaders aren’t actually helpless. This is a matter of whether or not folks want to lead in this moment or want to have the courage to do so.”
In Contra Costa County, where residents have recently demanded that Sheriff David Livingston do more to protect community members from ICE raids — including at schools — Marcus Walton, director of communications for the county Office of Education, said the agency will continue to train school staff on the proper response to any law enforcement activity on or near school campuses, and emphasize students’ physical and emotional safety. He also said online schooling is an option for families.
Gudiel Crosthwaite, superintendent of the Sunnyvale School District, said the district has offered legal resources and training to staff and families and offers virtual learning opportunities for students impacted by immigration activity.
“All of these things we’re doing are based on what we’ve seen happening in L.A., and we want to be ready. … I don’t want to wait as a superintendent of a school district. I want to work with our school board and make sure we’re doing everything proactive we can to make sure we’re ready for something like we’ve been seeing in L.A. because I just don’t feel like it’s going to go away,” Crosthwaite said. “Sunnyvale is a very diverse community. We have a large immigrant population. We have households who are mixed status.”
Spokespeople for the Office of Education in San Mateo County, Alameda County and Santa Clara County also confirmed they are not planning a response to the Trump administration’s ICE raids on the level of what Los Angeles has done, though they all emphasized they are attempting to provide immigration resources to families in their communities.
Ritu Mahajan Estes, who provides “Know Your Rights” training to schools, day cares and small businesses with the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, said schools are generally considered private spaces that immigration agents need a judicial warrant to enter if not given permission, while sidewalks and surrounding streets are considered public.
Mahajan Estes said warrants aren’t easy for immigration agents to get without probable cause, which is why schools have largely been successful in restricting immigration officers from their campuses.
“A least what we’re seeing in Los Angeles is the enforcement actions don’t appear to be targeted,” she said. “They’re essentially just driving around going to low-income areas and areas where they feel that there may be undocumented people and just grabbing them. So that’s even more reason for why they wouldn’t have any documentation or warrant because they often don’t really have any intel on the person, or they don’t necessarily know that the person’s even here unlawfully; they’ve even picked up citizens.”
Ali Saidi, a public defender lawyer and director of Stand Together Contra Costa, left, and Josh Anijar, executive director of the Contra Costa Labor Union, look on outside the Immigration Court in Concord, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
While Bay Area county education officials may not be collaborating with schools at the level being seen in Los Angeles, Ali Saidi, director of Stand Together Contra Costa — which collaborates with numerous other county departments and local partners to provide rapid response, legal services and community education — said there is still a lot of work being done to support immigrants locally. Saidi said his office has doubled down on ways to improve resources, and attorneys are still winning cases.
“I think people feel like it’s dire and there’s no hope, but we’re still winning asylum cases, habeas corpus proceedings and getting people free,” he said. “So I don’t want people to give up, I want more people to get engaged.”
He pointed to the $5 million that Supervisor Ken Carlson helped secure earlier this year to establish the Services and Access for Everyone (SAFE) Center, designed as a hub to connect immigrants and their families with resources, support and opportunities, which is tentatively set to open in Concord by December.
“We are partnering up and going to places where our community members are not feeling safe to engage with services,” Saidi said. “We’re trying to figure out — as a county — how to reach them and show that we still value and care for all people.”