The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts are coming at a high price for public school districts in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“Statewide, school enrollment is expected to be down by about 46,000 students this year. State demographers, in a January report, blamed the ‘chilling effects’ of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies as a leading cause for the plunge.”
Numerous Florida media outlets have documented stories of parents keeping children out of schools for fear of being apprehended and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the drop-off or pick-up process.
“Statewide, school enrollment is expected to be down by about 46,000 students this year.”
“I don’t want to be separated from my daughters. I don’t know what would become of me,” Yessi, a 28-year-old Apopka woman, said in an interview with the Sentinel.
“Children from immigrant families across Central Florida are now in the same spot as Yessi’s daughter, often missing school because their parents feel home is a safer option given the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,” the newspaper reported.
School systems in other states are also feeling the pain, including in Minnesota where the administration’s high-profile surge of ICE and Border Patrol personnel earlier this year sparked mass protests, agent-involved shootings and multiple lawsuits to stop violent enforcement actions at public schools.
“Students afraid to go to school during the recent federal immigration enforcement surge have contributed to a significant increase in the number of kids dropped from enrollment in Minneapolis Public Schools,” The Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
“The state’s third-largest district reported on Thursday, March 5, that it lost nearly 400 students to the so-called 15-day drop rule between Dec. 1 and Feb. 27 — a 49% increase over the same period in 2024-25.”
More than 6,000 students enrolled in online learning through St. Paul Public Schools during the height of the anti-immigration surge in Minnesota, the Pioneer Press reported. The district eased the registration process for online classes to help families concerned about ongoing detention and deportation efforts in the area.
Halla Henderson
School board member Halla Henderson said during a board meeting she hopes to be “able to continue to reassure (the) community that not only do we have your back, but we’re going to stand there with you and we’re going to do everything we can to protect you and to make you feel safe and to make sure that you have access.”
“The district’s temporary learning plan will be reviewed weekly, with an end date depending on ‘when our children know that they can journey to and from school, when our families know that they can drop their children off safely at school, without having fear,’” Superintendent Stacie Stanley said.
Stacie Stanley
Reports of ICE-induced reductions in school attendance also have been reported in cities nationwide, including Chicago; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; Miami; Denver; Houston; and Boston.
“President Trump’s immigration crackdown is exacerbating the already precarious problem of absenteeism in America’s schools,” The Hill observed as early as last summer. “Experts say schools will have to come up with action plans for their students ahead of the fall semester after a recent study showed an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids leads to students who lack certain documentation missing more class.”
Researchers, meanwhile, have found the administration’s immigration policies to be just as unpopular among Americans as a whole.
A January survey by Pew Research Center found 64% of Americans oppose holding large numbers of immigrants in detention centers and 66% oppose suspending all asylum applications.
A large majority (74%) believe it is definitely or probably acceptable for people to record video of immigration officers operating in their communities, while 59% say it is acceptable to share information about locations where arrests are being made.
Most Americans (72%) find it unacceptable for authorities to use people’s appearance or language as justification to check their immigration status, and 61% say it is unacceptable for agents to cover their faces during enforcement actions.