Immigration

Immigration enforcement fears force some South Bay parents to keep students out of school

A school district trustee says she’s heard from many parents who keep their children out of school on certain days or pull their children from class when they hear rumors of ICE raids in the community

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Amid the threats of mass deportations, many parents in the South Bay concede they are afraid of what might happen to their children at school on certain days. Damian Trujillo reports.

Amid the threats of mass deportations, many parents in the South Bay concede they are afraid of what might happen to their children at school on certain days.

Friday was one of the days Claudia Obregon decided to send her daughter to school in San Jose, but that wasn’t the case the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration. Obregon said there is great fear among her friends and neighbors.

Another mother who didn’t want to disclose her name said she fearfully sends her daughter.

"It causes a lot of stress for students," Alum Rock Union Elementary School District Board Member Corina Herrera-Loera said.

Herrera-Loera said she’s heard from many parents who keep their children out of school on certain days, like the day after the inauguration, or they pull their children from class when they hear rumors of Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids in the community.

The school district is still crunching the official attendance numbers, but there have been fluctuations day to day.

Herrera-Loera fears there's no way to measure the student stress levels in local middle schools and high schools.

"We’ve heard children saying bye to their friends already because they don’t know if they’re going to leave back to where their parents' birthplace might be even though their children might be born here," she said.

The school district said it doesn’t know how many parents are undocumented because they don’t ask for that information.

Obregon said she prays for protection from God because her family came to the United States with the dream of a better life.

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