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How districts are responding after Trump cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools

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How districts are responding after Trump cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools

A deportation officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York City field office conducts a brief before an early morning operation on Dec. 17, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP


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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

President Donald Trump has put an end to a longstanding policy that restricted federal agents from making immigration arrests at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals and schools.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates 733,000 school-aged children live in the United States without legal status.

Chalkbeat reporter Kalyn Belsha says districts across the country are now educating their teachers, students and parents on how this change in policy may affect their schools.

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“They’re preparing for the possibility that things could be happening outside the school while families are dropping their children off or potentially waiting at their bus stop,” Belsha says. “But then also, what would they do if an agent actually knocked on the door and said, ‘I would like to come in potentially to talk to a staff member or a parent or a child?’”

The fear has led parents in some cities to keep their children home from school.

3 questions with Kalyn Belsha

Are you hearing of instances of immigration agents showing up to schools?

“We had an incident happen in Chicago on Friday where there were some federal agents that showed up at a school asking to come in to interview an 11-year-old who had posted an anti-Trump video on TikTok.

“They presented their credentials, they said [they were] Department of Homeland Security. The school was confused and said, ‘No, you cannot come in.’

“It turned out they were actually from the Secret Service, which does not enforce immigration law, but the school activated its protocol as if it were protecting that student, and said, ‘You can’t come in because you don’t have a signed warrant.’

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“It created all kinds of confusion and no one really understood what was going on for hours until we finally got confirmation that it was Secret Service.

“I think that’s the kind of example of, even if it isn’t an ICE agent, it creates all kinds of chaos for the school and for the school communities. We have not seen a documented evidence yet of an agent coming in to get a student.”

What are you hearing of the fears of the parents of students?

“I think that the more common thing we’ve seen play out has been workplace raids that have had huge ripple effects on children and schools. Sometimes children have gone home and their parent hasn’t been there, or the school has had to find an alternate place for them to stay because the parent didn’t come pick them up.

“We’ve also seen teenagers having to step up and be the parent and kind of try to figure out how to explain to their much younger siblings what’s going on. Often some family members have been released on humanitarian parole, mothers often, but then some are detained for a really long time and that really affects the family.

“So we’re going to have to figure out what happens now, whether or not there are people who are released on humanitarian parole or if family members are detained for much longer periods of time.”

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Are schools already experiencing effects of this policy change?

“In New York City, a colleague of mine spoke with several parents who were from migrant families who are staying in city shelters, and they said that they kept their kids home for several days last week.

“So I think it’s not totally widespread yet, but in certain instances some family members have decided to keep their kids home out of fear.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Quraishi adapted it for the web. This segment aired on Here & Now on Jan. 27, 2025.

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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