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Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Monday school police will create “perimeters of safety” around high school graduation ceremonies to keep out immigration enforcement agents after federal raids rocked the city last week.
Speaking at a press conference at LAUSD headquarters, Carvalho also said the district would offer transportation to graduation events, shorten lines outside venues, and provide temporary shelter for attendees in case of immigration action by ICE at or near graduation venues.
The district was examining steps it could take to ensure immigrant students can participate in summer school classes that start next week without threat of arrest, including expanded busing and more virtual classes, Carvalho said.
“Our schools are places of education and inspiration, not fear and intimidation,” Carvalho said. “Many of us here are immigrants or children of immigrants.”
The actions come as the Trump administration has ramped up actions against immigrant students across the country.
More than 100 graduation-related events are scheduled across L.A. schools on Monday and Tuesday, which is the last day of class before LAUSD lets out for summer break.
Carvalho, who is a Portuguese immigrant and outspoken critic of the immigration policies of President Donald Trump, said some L.A. families were afraid to attend graduation ceremonies, fearful they could be targeted by federal immigration agents.
He said schools and families remain on high alert after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in L.A. last week arrested more than 100 people in raids across the city.
The federal immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles last week included arrests at local businesses, but not at schools, and prompted widespread and sometimes violent protests that began on Friday and continued through Monday, with dozens of arrests.
LAUSD does not track students’ immigration status. According to the city’s teachers’ union the district serves nearly 30,000 immigrant students, and a quarter of those students are undocumented.
LA Immigrant families have grown more concerned as the Trump administration has stepped up immigration crackdowns in L.A. and beyond.
In April, federal immigration agents were denied access to two LAUSD elementary schools after the agents sought to contact five students at those schools, who were identified by federal authorities as minors who arrived unaccompanied at the border.
Carvalho said he has instructed LAUSD school police to “intervene” against any ICE agents who may be attempting immigration enforcement at school graduation events, but he declined to provide additional details.
“Every single graduation site is a protected site,” Carvalho said. “I have directed our own police force to redouble their efforts and establish perimeters of safety around graduation sites, [and] to interfere, intervene and interfere with any federal agency who may want to take action.”
He said he had spoken with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom about the actions he was taking. Reps for Bass and Newsom didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The LAUSD school board, Newsom and Bass have all backed Carvalho in standing against federal immigration enforcement. The LAUSD school board has issued a series of resolutions stating that L.A. Unified will be a sanctuary for immigrant students.
Carvalho said on Monday that last week two ICE vehicles were spotted near two LAUSD elementary schools. The ICE agents didn’t visit the schools, Carcalho said, but they did frighten the children inside.
“No action has been taken, but we interpret those actions as actions of intimidation, instilling fear that may lead to self deportation,” said Carvalho. “That is not the community we want to be. That is not the state or the nation that we ought to be.”