With the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) returning to school this week, teachers are preparing for what they anticipate to be an anxious year. 

Federal immigration raids picked up across LA this summer, as President Donald Trump’s administration attempted to “make an example” of the “sanctuary city” with masked United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents indiscriminately detaining mostly Latinos outside workplaces, hospitals, schools and at places of worship.  

Teachers do not yet know the full extent and impact that the immigration raids will have on their students and classrooms. 

“We really don’t know how this has impacted the students yet,” said CM, a second-grade teacher entering her 31st year at a school in the San Fernando Valley who asked to remain anonymous. “We’re not going to see the impact until we see the kids.”

The raids began the second week of June, starting just as the 2024-2025 school year was coming to an end. Despite a two-week lull in activity – due to a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a federal district judge and upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – this week, immigration raids have once again ramped up, just in time for the new school year. 

CM teaches a dual language classroom, with children who speak Spanish and are learning English as a Second Language (ESL) or who have newly arrived in the country. The school she teaches at is 96% Latino. 

“Even [during] the first term Trump was elected, I had newcomers who were scared,” said CM. “After he got elected, they would come and tell me, ‘I’m really afraid, because we don’t know what’s going to happen at my house – our parents are undocumented.’”

She anticipates that her students will need a lot of care and support through this difficult time. 

“It’s really sad to see what’s going on,” said CM. “We’ve been dealing with COVID kids. … Kids come in with fewer social skills, and … now they’re going through another round of trauma.”

Teachers are preparing to provide social-emotional support in the classroom, as well as coping mechanisms for their students to deal with the stress, anxiety or fear they may be feeling, said CM. She noted that many students have dealt with issues outside the classroom before, and that the school provides a psychiatric social worker (PSW) that teachers can refer students to. But this is a particularly difficult time for the student body as a whole. 

“We’re going to have to be strong to provide social-emotional skills for the kids to deal with this,” said CM, noting that it can be difficult when teachers themselves are dealing with some of the same emotions. 

She reflected on how she was feeling overwhelmed that morning by the news of an 18-year-old rising senior at Reseda High School being detained by ICE agents while walking his dog in Van Nuys. The agents reportedly tied his dog to a tree and then unclipped the collar to let him run loose on Sepulveda Boulevard, and joked while arresting him that “thanks to him, they get to drink this weekend,” laughing about the $2,500 they secured with his arrest.

“I’m hoping for the best for the kids. I’m hoping that everything will be fine,” said CM.

Teachers are fearful that attendance could be low due to fear among families, but she is hopeful that all 19 of her students will show up on the first day of school – even the few who have open asylum cases. 

She reassured that her classroom and the school are safe spaces for these children. 

“All the staff, we would not allow [ICE] to come [on campus],” CM stated. 

“But we cannot control what goes on outside of the gate,” she admitted.