This is how immigration enforcement enters a school community: not through the front door, not with notice or coordination, but through missing children and unfinished care. In school health offices, care does not pause because a system has fractured a family. Children who remain in school carry fear with them — fear that shows up as stomach pain, headaches, panic, withdrawal, or sudden anger. Accounts from children held in family immigration detention centers corroborate the emotional and educational toll of these experiences. Schools cannot control immigration enforcement policy.

Source: Washington Post February 11, 2026 12:58 UTC