Schools around the U.S. confront anxiety over Trump’s actions on immigration

Immigration policies under Trump administration create fear and uncertainty for students and families across the U.S.

In Fresno, California, social media rumours about impending immigration raids at the city's schools left some parents panicking — even though the raids were all hoaxes. In Denver, a real immigration raid at an apartment complex led to scores of students staying home from school, according to a lawsuit. And in Alice, Texas, a school official incorrectly told parents that Border Patrol agents might board school buses to check immigration papers.

President Donald Trump's immigration policies already are affecting schools across the country, as officials find themselves responding to rising anxiety among parents and their children, including those who are here legally. Mr. Trump's executive actions vastly expanded who is eligible for deportation and lifted a ban on immigration enforcement in schools.

While many public and school officials have been working to encourage immigrants to send their children to school, some have done the opposite. Meanwhile, Republicans in Oklahoma and Tennessee have put forward proposals that would make it difficult — or even impossible — for children in the country illegally and U.S.-born children of parents without documentation to attend school at all.

As they weigh the risks, many families have struggled with separating facts from rumor.

In the Alice Independent School District in Texas, school officials told parents that the district “received information” that U.S. Border Patrol agents could ask students about their citizenship status during field trips on school buses that pass through checkpoints about 60 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. The information ended up being false.

Angelib Hernandez of Aurora, Colorado, began keeping her children home from their schools a few days a week after Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Now she doesn’t send them at all.

She’s worried immigration agents will visit her children’s schools, detain them and separate her family.