ICE activity prompts Oakland school lockdowns, turning student fears into reality

As a child of immigrants, 14-year-old Quetzali Precadio-Cruz has always known what ICE was, but her anxiety surrounding immigration enforcement grew last summer when she read about the agency tripling its arrest quotas.

“It seems simple, but I’m a kid. I should just be thinking about homework or finishing things like that, and not stressing about if ICE is going to detain somebody that I know,” said Quetzali, who attends Oakland High School.  

Until this week, there had been no confirmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity at or near Oakland Unified School District schools, even after President Donald Trump increased raids targeting undocumented immigrants. But on Wednesday morning, Oakland students faced that fear when ICE agents reportedly were seen in West Oakland, prompting Hoover Elementary and Harriet Tubman Childhood Development Center to go into lockdown protocol, the district told parents in a 12:43 p.m. email.

The district confirmed reports of ICE agents at the intersection of 31st and Market streets and said it received, but had not confirmed, reports of agents on International Boulevard around 71st Street or 81st Street.  

“Your child is safe in school,” the email said.

The Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership, which provides legal services for undocumented immigrants, said ICE activity was reported near Hoover around 8:40 a.m. ACILEP’s team responded and confirmed that ICE was present in the neighborhood surrounding the elementary school.

In an Instagram post, Councilmember Carroll Fife, who represents West Oakland, said neighbors told her masked men in an SUV chased a car containing an adult and a child, which then crashed into third vehicle. Fife said neighbors believe the masked men were with ICE, though she did not say what identified the men as government agents. 

The Oakland Police Department backed up some of what Fife reported, saying on social media that a collision had occurred on 31st Street around 10 a.m. “Preliminary findings indicate that an outside law enforcement agency was conducting an investigation within the City of Oakland. During their operation, officers attempted to contact the vehicle involved in their case. That vehicle later collided with an uninvolved vehicle,” the post read. Police did not mention masked men in an SUV.

Sanctuary amendment

Wednesday’s incident occurred nine weeks after the School Board amended a 2016 sanctuary resolution, reaffirming the district’s commitment to educating students no matter their immigration status and ensuring students face no discrimination on the basis of that status. The amendment extends those guarantees to Black, Muslim and LGBTQ students.

The School Board thought the amendment was warranted because one of Trump’s first orders in January removed protections from ICE in sensitive areas like courthouses, health facilities and schools. He also committed to conducting the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. This summer, he worked to realize that vision, deploying ICE agents into sanctuary cities across the country. Soon reports surfaced of parents and students in other California cities getting deported near school grounds. 

Quetzali said her social media feed was flooded with videos of ICE arrests. She recalled one particularly jarring video where ICE agents pulled up in unmarked cars and pushed a fruit vendor against a tree, taking her into custody. Quetzali said seeing violent videos like these have been affecting her sleep.

“I was just afraid for the people around me, the people I know who are undocumented, the people who might be profiled,” Quetzali said. “It wasn’t just anxiety on, ‘Am I going to be detained,’ that’s not what was at the top of my mind, but more so the people that I know. Like, am I going to have to face some loss in that sense.”

‘Document as much as possible’

Franci Garcia Dardon, 18, is a senior at Oakland’s Fremont High School, where about three-quarters of the students are Latino. She carries the same fears as Quetzali. 

“Sometimes I can hear my classmates talking about what’s going on in LA, or worries about what’s going to happen to their families, or if they can even come to school,” she said. “I know in Oakland it’s not as bad as compared to other cities, but there’s definitely a fear that it could get that bad.”

This is what the School Board is trying to prevent. The only way ICE would be allowed to access an Oakland school campus would be through a judicial warrant or subpoena verified by OUSD’s legal team, said Nicole Knight, executive director of the district’s English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement office. 

OUSD also has protocols in place to alert families of a confirmed ICE presence near a school. However, sanctuary amendments and protocols have limitations. Knight, whose office supports immigrant and newcomer families, said the non-public space of a school begins at the gate or front door. ICE can’t cross that threshold without a warrant or subpoena but agents can detain people outside of the school perimeters, including the streets and sidewalks where parents drop off and pick up their children.

Knight said OUSD encourages staff to be present during dropoff and pickup. Although they cannot hinder ICE activity, they can report it to the district.

“In the event that law enforcement were not adhering to our protocol, they do have the right to take video, to take pictures,” Knight said. “They’re asked to request the name and badge number of the officer, and just to document as much as possible.” 

Quetzali wondered how the staff would protect students who take the bus and have to wait at a stop across the street, away from school grounds. But she acknowledged there’s only so much a school can do. 

“I don’t know if there is something that can be done to make people feel safer, especially if they’re taking public transportation,” she said.

According to an Oakland Kids First Facebook post, some neighborhoods have initiated volunteer ICE foot patrols. The post noted “drop off and pickup can be hectic times at school sites,” and said patrollers are meant to be witnesses if ICE shows up at a school.  

If ICE tried to enter a school without a warrant, Knight said a principal would initiate lockdown protocol, locking lock doors and classrooms — as schools did on Wednesday.

In an email update to parents Wednesday night, OUSD said Hoover and Harriet Tubman were locked down because of their proximity to ICE activity, and that the schools notified families. The district followed up with an alert to all families.

“We applaud our school and district staff for stepping up and navigating the situation calmly and effectively today, and we also want to acknowledge the support of the larger Oakland community in standing up for their fellow Oaklanders,” the email said.

The district advised parents concerned about dropping off or picking up children to make arrangements with their school’s office or afterschool provider.

Community groups involved

Two Oakland community groups, the Black Organizing Project and Californians for Justice, work closely with students, talking with them about how safety and inclusion could be improved in the district. 

Quetzali, who is an intern with CFJ, said ICE protocols in her school aren’t talked about enough. She said the school had an ICE lockdown drill before Trump had threatened to send federal forces to the Bay Area on Oct. 23, but that students weren’t told what was happening that warranted the drill. 

“Unless you go out of your way to get involved with stuff or do your own research, you don’t really learn about it,” Quetzali said. 

Knight, who is on the task force that suggested language for the School Board’s sanctuary amendment, said she would relay Quetzali’s feedback to the task force.

Black Organizing Project and Californians for Justice joined the Oakland Education Association to create the sanctuary amendment, which states that the district would commit to working with these groups to address districtwide climate and culture.  

Nifa Akosua, BOP’s Black sanctuary co-lead, said those who are most affected should be involved in remedying the issues.

“We definitely want to continue to empower communities to stand up, encourage them to get their resources and information, so they know how to move and fight for the justice that they seek,” Akosua said. “Making sure that … they’re having a better outcome for the young person in school.” 

(Top photo: Community members push for the sanctuary amendment at an OUSD board meeting, by Charlie Wang.)

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