New laws rightly keep California schools off-limits to ICE officers | Opinion

Teachers in the Fresno Unified School District face daunting challenges.

The majority of students fail to reach grade level in English and math, state data show.

There are reasons for this. Of the district’s 70,000 students, over 60,000 are categorized as English learners, homeless or foster youth or eligible for reduced-price meals.

So worrying about what will happen to students if federal immigration agents show up at school is the last thing a Fresno Unified teacher needs.

A pair of new state laws will help ensure that staff at schools across California can focus on educating students rather than facing off against masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Assembly Bill 49, authored by Torrance Democrat Al Muratsuchi, prohibits ICE agents from coming onto a campus or child-care facility “without providing valid identification, a written statement of purpose, a valid judicial warrant, and approval from the school district’s superintendent or director of the child care center.”

Should ICE agents meet those requirements, the bill further requires that their access be restricted to areas of a campus “where students or children are not present.”

If ICE agents do show up at a school, another just-approved measure, Senate Bill 98 by Democratic Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena, calls on administrators to alert parents, much as would be done in other types of emergencies. Fresno Unified uses on online system called ParentSquare to send such alerts.

That these bills are even needed reflects the dire impact of President Donald Trump’s pledge to mount the largest deportation campaign in the nation’s history.

Enhancing student protection

According to Muratsuchi. one in six students in California has an undocumented parent or relative. In Fresno Unified, more than 3,000 students were born outside of the United States. Not all of those are undocumented, according to the district.

Having the state bills signed into law this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom strengthens Fresno Unified’s own policies, said Fresno High-area Trustee Andy Levine.

“These bills are important steps in helping us continue to do everything we can to protect our students and families, regardless of immigration status,” he said in an email. “While Fresno Unified has already adopted board policies and administrative regulations to proactively commit as much as possible to many of the protections covered in these bills, having these now codified in law will only help strengthen our commitments and guarantee those same protections for all students, not only in Fresno Unified but throughout California.”

Levine also noted the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that local school districts must provide access to education regardless of immigration status.

Assembly Bill 49 passed with the support of 58 Democrats and three Republicans. Seven GOP members, including David Tangipa of Fresno, voted against it.

Suit over alleged racial profiling

That the new laws are needed was shown dramatically in Los Angeles in August, when immigration agents held a 15-year-old disabled boy at gunpoint outside the walls of a high school.

The boy is an American citizen, and the federal government later admitted it was a case of mistaken identity. The family has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the Trump administration over what it characterizes as illegal racial profiling by the officers.

In January, the Trump administration rescinded policies of the Biden White House that kept ICE agents away from schools, churches and health-care facilities. In a series of memos, the Trump team “stated explicitly that ICE could take enforcement action in schools and churches,” according to the National Immigration Law Center.

There is no question people without proper immigration status are in the sights of Trump and his enforcement agencies. But those officers must do their work away from campuses unless a court approves such action.

Schools must be safe places for young people. Democratic legislators were right to pass the new bills in California. Now ICE agents and Homeland Security officials must obey them as the law-abiding officers they claim to be.

This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "New laws rightly keep California schools off-limits to ICE officers | Opinion."