As president, Donald J. Trump is following through on his controversial campaign promise to “launch the largest deportation program in American history.”
Since his inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2025, Trump has been signing an inordinate amount of executive orders to try and make the country as close to his idea of perfection as possible, including things like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; renaming Mount Denali to its previous name of Mount McKinley; and attempting to revoke birthright citizenship for any individuals within the United States borders born to immigrants from around the world.
Under President Trump, ICE, otherwise known as the United States of America Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, began arresting undocumented immigrants accused of crimes. They have also arrested many undocumented immigrants that are not accused of any crimes. The Trump administration has also rescinded a Biden era policy, giving ICE the green light to enter “safe zones” such as places of worship, hospitals, and schools, which were previously deemed no-go zones.
In fact, in a recent official press release titled Statement from DHS Spokesperson on Directives Expanding Law Enforcement and Ending the Abuse of Humanitarian Parole, which was released on January 21, 2025, in which the DHS stated, “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
Because of all of these changes and executive orders being signed, many documented and undocumented parents alike are afraid that their children are going to be pulled out of their classrooms and shipped off to “home countries” that they may have never been to because it’s so hard to figure out what the situation even is. This invokes feelings of fear, anxiety, distrust of government, and general worry for many Americans.
In response to this, our superintendent, Craig Hoekstra, sent out an email to parents and teachers that said, “As educators, it is our duty to make certain that all children, regardless of citizenship, immigration status, race, or national origin have equal access to a free public education… Current guidance from the United States of America’s Department of Homeland Security identifies schools as ‘protected areas,’ emphasizing that immigration enforcement actions should not occur in or near schools except under extraordinary circumstances.” This notice is unfortunately outdated, because schools, churches, and hospitals are no longer protected from immigration officials thanks to one of Trump’s many executive orders.
Unfortunately, this letter did not serve to completely reassure all students. Freshman Eduardo Ramirez remains concerned. “I don’t think any space is truly safe anymore, especially from a government agency,” he said. “I find it a bit reassuring, but there’s still a lot of fear in the back of my mind.”
Some students were reassured with the letter, such as another freshman Jayden Muilenburg.“It’s a possibility, but I’m not too worried about it,” he said. “The U.S. has always been a cultural melting pot so for them to take out just certain races of people would deter from that which would be unfair to the people that this is their home.”
Thankfully, there are some groups working to help protect these individuals, such as the Grand Rapids Rapid Response to ICE, who are petitioning to make Grand Rapids become a Sanctuary City.
“Adopting Sanctuary City status will mean that Grand Rapids:
1. Declares itself a sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, and;
2. Commits to preventing the Grand Rapids Police Department from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and any law enforcement agency that seek to arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants,” according to Ames Carpenter of the aforementioned Grand Rapids Rapid Response to ICE group. Another thing the group did to protect immigrants was offer a training on Jan. 18, 2025 on how you can help support immigrants.
If after reading this, you feel like you need some extra support, you can reach out to our counseling department or deans.