NYC schools prepare to support Haitian students as TPS protections end
The playground and splash pad outside two elementary schools in Brooklyn’s Little Haiti neighborhood are usually teeming with children during the sweltering last weeks before a new school year starts.
But neighbors say the park outside the two Nostrand Avenue elementary schools has been quiet since the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for people from Haiti. The end of this immigration status means that thousands could be deported back to Haiti.
Educators and immigrant rights groups are trying to help students and families who recently lost their TPS protections stay safe as the school year approaches, urging them to be vigilant and prepared while navigating the increased risk of arrest and detention.
“Families are having to spend the back-to-school season not just thinking about buying backpacks and school supplies or their kids’ favorite snack, but taking concrete steps to prepare for the possibility of detention or family separation,” said Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, a policy and advocacy organization that represents immigrant rights groups throughout New York.
The Department of Education has not offered specific guidance for those who have recently lost their TPS protections, and Onika Richards, a spokesperson for the department, says that the agency will not be changing its protocol for interacting with federal immigration agents.
Local laws prevent New York City agencies from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Department of Education, among other city agencies, is instructed not to ask questions about people’s documentation status, share information with ICE, or allow ICE agents inside New York City schools unless they have a warrant.
Support service providers say that some Haitian families are already staying home out of fear of deportation. They told Gothamist that doctors appointments and trips to the grocery store are being skipped, and enrollment in summer programming for Haitian youth has plummeted — not a good sign, they say, for their future class attendance. One youth coordinator said five students he has spoken with say they have decided not to bother enrolling in school at all.
TPS protects immigrants from certain countries from deportation because of violent or otherwise “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that would make returning home dangerous. The Trump administration has ended, or is moving to end, TPS for refugees across the globe, arguing that the safety conditions in various countries have changed. This is of particular concern for the 40,000 Haitians living across New York state who were formerly protected by TPS, according to data compiled by Phillip Connor, a research fellow at Princeton University. Many have already lost their jobs, in addition to their legal authorization to live in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that TPS was designed to be temporary, as is in the name of the policy, and that Haiti is now safe enough to return to. In a recent report, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants disputes this categorization.
A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security says law enforcement is conducting activities across the country to keep Americans safe, but that DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations. But in general, the spokesperson said, “ICE is not going to schools to make arrests.”
“If a dangerous or violent illegal criminal alien felon were to flee into a daycare, or a child sex offender is working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect the safety of the children.”
Emergency contacts and volunteer escorts
Jamie Hendrickson, the principal at Meyer Levin Middle School, estimates that at least 10% to 15% of her students are of Haitian descent. When the federal government first floated the idea of ending TPS, Hendrickson said it became a conversation on campus — students raised concerns with teachers and counselors, she said.
Hendrickson said even last year, when the end of TPS was still being challenged in court, she noticed Haitian parents calling and visiting school less. Because of that, she’s not sure how Haitian families are feeling about the upcoming school year, now that the end of TPS is official.
“ What we are learning or will learn, I’m certain, will come mostly from our students that show up,” Hendrickson said.
Immigrant rights groups say that concerns are largely twofold: that a child’s parent or guardian could be detained while they are at school, or that ICE stakes out a campus, waiting for recently undocumented children to leave.
Schools like Hendrickson’s are stressing the importance of the mandate to have updated emergency contact cards with trusted adults to call in the event that something happens to a parent during school hours. Community groups are urging families to have temporary caregiver plans in place.
If a child’s emergency contacts are unreachable, the New York City public school website states that school personnel will call the local police precinct, who may in turn contact the city Administration for Children’s Services.
“Imagine being a child preparing to walk into a classroom, you know, wondering whether your parents will be home when you come back,” said Elsie Saint Louis, the CEO and executive director of Haitian Americans United for Progress, a New York City-based community services organization. “That kind of anxiety does not stay at the school door.”
Hendrickson said that school safety officers would alert the principal if they saw ICE agents near school. Staff would then enact protocols, including asking for documentation from the agents and calling city attorneys while asking ICE to wait outside.
Naveed Hasan, an elected parent on the panel for Educational Policy, a governing body that oversees New York City’s public schools, is calling for interagency collaboration to make sure kids aren’t picked up by ICE on their commute to school, or while entering or exiting the school building.
“ The schools are safe,” he said. “It’s the coming to school that’s been the problem.”
“We need other agencies to work hand-in-hand with the school bus providers, with the MTA, and the school system to make sure that there’s a passage, a safe passage between wherever they’re living to school,” Hasan said.
Right now, he added, there are hyperlocal networks of volunteers who can escort children to and from school by request. To take advantage of this resource, he said individuals can reach out to Hands Off NYC Families, a resource hub that helps coordinate local volunteers.
A push to strengthen local regulations
Hasan and other community organizers have expressed a need to strengthen regulations to keep immigrant students safe.
In addition to supporting children on their commutes to school, Hasan said the public school webpage that states it will not collaborate with nonlocal law enforcement should be codified into a chancellor’s regulation, the closest thing the education department has to school law. This would allow schools that don’t follow policy to be held accountable, Hasan said.
The regulations, Hasan said, are “not enough when ICE is very active.”
In the meantime, some parents are planning on escorting their kids to school, so they don’t have to go it alone. Still, advocates say that level of fear and anxiety is damaging for families.
”For any administration or anyone outside of the situation to lose sight of how these are not just policies, these are families, these are children, these are mothers and fathers,” Saint Louis said. “The human collateral to these abstract decisions is immense.”