It happened in New Mexico, it happened in Tennessee, and now it’s happened in Mississippi. BuzzFeed News reports more than 200 children stayed home from school following a series of ICE raids that swept up nearly 700 workers and separated families this week. “Educators could not pinpoint the exact reason each student was missing,” but the assumption is the correct one.
“Leake County School District in central Mississippi reported that 50 students—one-fourth of all who attend—were absent Thursday, while Scott County School District officials said more than 150 Latino children did not show up for class. The Canton Public School District saw 63 of its 400 English as a second language students fail to appear following the raid, which occurred during the first week of school.”
“We’ve reached out to them,” said Scott County School District superintendent Tony McGee. “Part of it is fear, the fear of coming to school. There is an uneasiness of moving around the community, moving about schools, but we are trying to reassure them: School is a safe harbor.” But even as teachers and schools have mobilized to protect their students, hundreds—even thousands—of kids skipping school following a raid has become horrifically common.
Following an ICE raid on a meatpacking plant in Tennessee last year, 500 students stayed home from school. “Kids who are supposed to be learning about light waves, radio waves and the electromagnetic spectrum ... are instead wondering if they'll ever see their loved ones again,” a teacher told CNN. In New Mexico the previous year, 2,000 students skipped school following a raid that targeted a Las Cruces neighborhood.
In Mississippi, authorities said they’d released 300 of the 680 people detained, including one worker whose daughter “was seen in a video on Facebook begging an ICE official to let her see her mother,” CNN reported. Thirty of these workers were released on “humanitarian grounds,” which raises an important issue: ICE didn’t have to carry out these raids, but it made the decision to separate families, and it made this decision to carry out these raids following a terrorist attack on Latinos in Texas. The cruelty has always been intentional.
It’s not just the adults being punished for simply wanting to provide for their families either, it’s also the children. “The raids in Mississippi are immoral and part of a war the Trump administration has started against immigrant families,” said League of United Latin American Citizens president Domingo Garcia. “Once again, this administration has separated families and left innocent children without their parents, simply for political purposes motivated by racism and prejudice.”
Groups on the ground in Mississippi are mobilizing to help these children and their families. Please chip in whatever you can to help them rebuild their lives.