Why It Matters

This is not a niche issue. It affects entire school communities.

Immigration enforcement near schools affects far more than undocumented students. Millions of U.S. citizen children, their classmates, educators, and entire neighborhoods experience the consequences — in attendance, academic performance, mental health, and community stability.

The effects of immigration enforcement do not stop at documentation status.

Fear spreads through families, classrooms, and neighborhoods. When a child's parent is at risk, the whole household is disrupted. When a classmate disappears overnight, the entire class feels it. The research is consistent: enforcement activity near schools harms attendance, learning, and well-being for all students — citizen and non-citizen alike.

This page summarizes the evidence on who bears the costs — and why that matters for every district, every school board, and every community that cares about public education.

Millions of U.S. families are mixed-status

The scale of the affected population is far larger than most people realize — and most of those children are U.S. citizens.

1 in 4 children in the U.S. has at least one immigrant parent
12% of all children are U.S. citizens with at least one non-citizen parent
4.4M U.S.-born children live with an undocumented parent
9M school-age children (ages 5–17) live with at least one non-citizen adult — 17% of that age group

In some states, the share is significantly higher: roughly 32% in California, 25% in Texas, 24% in New Jersey, and 23% in Nevada. (KFF analysis)

These children are overwhelmingly U.S. citizens — but they live in households where immigration enforcement is a direct threat to their family. When enforcement increases, the fear is not limited to one person. It disrupts the entire household: parents afraid to drive to school, families weighing whether to keep children home, children arriving at school already exhausted by anxiety they cannot name.

Most children affected are American citizens.

Enforcement activity near schools does not affect only undocumented students — it affects U.S. citizen siblings, children of legal residents, classmates who share a neighborhood, and communities that share schools. The population experiencing disruption is broad, and so is the case for clear, protective policies.

Even people here legally have been affected

Immigration enforcement does not only affect undocumented individuals. Research and reporting document cases in which U.S. citizens, green card holders, and people with legal status have been stopped, detained, or — in rare cases — removed due to errors, misidentification, or aggressive enforcement practices.

U.S. citizens detained

A 2025 investigation found that more than 170 U.S. citizens had been detained by immigration agents in a single year. Some were held for extended periods, denied access to lawyers or family members, and detained despite presenting documentation of their citizenship. Government data separately shows that ICE has arrested, detained, and in some cases removed individuals it identified as "potential U.S. citizens" in prior years.

Documented errors go back decades

Since 2002, ICE has mistakenly identified more than 2,800 U.S. citizens for deportation and detained hundreds of them. In some documented cases, U.S. citizens have been held in immigration detention for months or years before their status was confirmed and they were released.

Legal residents are not fully protected either

Even lawful permanent residents — green card holders — can be detained under immigration law, particularly if prior convictions or other legal complications are involved. In April 2026, a green card holder who had lived in the United States since childhood was detained by ICE after returning from international travel due to an old conviction. Cases like this reinforce community-wide uncertainty about who is and is not at risk.

These cases are not the norm — but their impact on fear is real.

The number of documented errors is small relative to total enforcement actions. But the larger impact is the uncertainty they create. When families see that even U.S. citizens and legal residents can be stopped or detained, fear spreads across entire communities — including among students who are fully documented. You do not have to be undocumented to be afraid.

This uncertainty contributes directly to the chilling effect documented in schools: students and families avoiding attendance or participation not because of their own status, but because of the risk — however small — of being caught up in enforcement actions. The result is absenteeism, anxiety, and disengagement that reaches classrooms regardless of whether any student or family member is actually targeted.

What happens in schools

Research consistently documents three categories of harm: attendance and enrollment, academic performance, and mental and physical health.

Attendance and enrollment

Absences spike — even when students are not directly targeted

When immigration enforcement intensified in Southern California in early 2025, students in five counties missed 22 percent more school days than in prior years. Pre-kindergarten absences rose 35 percent. These spikes occurred even in areas where families simply heard rumors of ICE presence — not in areas where schools were directly targeted. (Stanford Graduate School of Education)

Enrollment falls in affected communities

A Stanford working paper found that local ICE enforcement partnerships reduced Hispanic student enrollment by nearly 10 percent within two years, displacing more than 300,000 students. The declines were largest among elementary-age children — the students with the least ability to navigate disruption on their own. (Stanford SIEPR)

Attendance drives school funding — declines harm every student

In many states, school funding is tied to average daily attendance. When fear-driven absences reduce enrollment numbers, schools lose resources that support all students — not just those from immigrant families.

Academic performance

Research finds that increased immigration enforcement is associated with declining academic performance — including among U.S.-born students. A study of a large Florida county found that test scores fell for middle and high school students who speak Spanish at home — a group that is overwhelmingly composed of U.S. citizens.

A related study linked heightened enforcement in 2025 with reduced test scores for both U.S.-born and foreign-born Spanish-speaking students. The mechanism is straightforward: children who are stressed, sleep-deprived, and worried about their families cannot focus on learning. (EdWorkingPapers)

The mechanism

Academic disruption follows a predictable path: enforcement activity or rumors → family stress → disrupted sleep and home environment → difficulty concentrating at school → lower grades and test scores. These effects compound over time and widen existing achievement gaps.

Mental and physical health

Stress and anxiety

Child psychologists report that immigration enforcement causes stress, fear, uncertainty, and trauma — particularly among children who witness arrests in their community or fear losing a parent.

"Nowhere is safe"

When enforcement occurs near schools — in parking lots, at bus stops, on familiar routes — children experience a loss of security in the spaces that are supposed to be predictable and safe.

Long-term effects

Even the threat of separation can lead to anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems that persist long after the immediate enforcement activity ends.

(NEA)

Effects on classmates

A 2025 national survey of high school principals found that 35.6% reported immigration-related bullying and 70.4% reported heightened student anxiety — effects spread across entire school populations. (UCLA)

Ripple effects across schools and neighborhoods

The impact does not stay inside the classroom.

  • Educators report plummeting attendance, emotional withdrawal, and families disappearing overnight — with little or no warning
  • Students return to school after a classmate or family member has been detained, carrying grief and fear that no curriculum addresses
  • Teachers and administrators manage uncertainty and trauma with limited guidance from districts that lack clear protocols
  • Parents afraid to leave home stop driving children to school, attending parent nights, or engaging with school staff
  • Whole communities experience disrupted routines as fear of enforcement changes where people go and when

Unequal burdens on schools serving immigrant communities

Schools in communities with higher immigrant populations absorb a disproportionate share of the disruption — more absences, more trauma, more families in crisis. Without clear policies and support systems, those schools are left to manage a growing set of needs with the same resources. That widens inequities in public education.

Policies driving fear

State-level policy proposals can amplify the chilling effect even before any enforcement action takes place.

Some states have advanced legislation that would require schools to verify student immigration status or collect information about students' citizenship. Even when such proposals do not explicitly bar undocumented children from attending — a requirement that would violate Plyler v. Doe — they increase fear and reduce enrollment among families who cannot be certain how the information will be used.

The chilling effect is real even without enforcement.

Families do not wait to see what a law actually requires. When they hear that schools may be required to ask about status, many withdraw their children immediately. Research consistently shows that rumor and fear drive attendance decisions as powerfully as actual enforcement.

Over 2 million school-age children in states like Texas, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Indiana live with at least one non-citizen adult. Policies that heighten fear in those states have the potential to affect school funding, staffing, and educational outcomes at scale.

Why it matters for everyone

The effects are far-reaching

Immigration enforcement near schools harms U.S. citizens and documented students alongside undocumented peers. The community experiencing disruption includes citizens, legal residents, and their neighbors — the vast majority of those affected.

School funding depends on attendance

Enrollment and attendance declines driven by fear reduce the resources available to every student in affected schools. When families stay home, budgets shrink — and the consequences fall on everyone.

Educational disruption compounds over time

Chronic absenteeism, falling test scores, and untreated trauma do not resolve on their own. Students who miss school due to fear fall behind — and that gap is difficult to close. Long-term educational disruption affects students' health and economic prospects for years.

Community stability depends on school safety

Schools are anchors for communities. When families lose trust that schools are safe and stable, they disengage from the institutions that connect them to neighbors, services, and civic life. That erosion of trust harms everyone.

This is a public education issue — not just an immigration issue.

Every student has a right to attend school without fear. Every school has an obligation to maintain conditions where learning is possible. And every community benefits when schools are safe, well-attended, and trusted. The case for clear, protective policies is not just about one group of students — it is about what kind of school system we are willing to maintain for everyone.

What you can do

Understanding who is affected is the first step. These resources cover what districts, educators, and communities can do about it.

Sources

  • KFF: The share of children living with a non-citizen parent. Analysis of Census data on mixed-status families by state, including figures on U.S.-born children with non-citizen parents. kff.org
  • Stanford Graduate School of Education: Student absences increased under threat of deportation efforts. 22% increase in absences; 35% increase in pre-K absences in five Southern California counties. ed.stanford.edu
  • Stanford SIEPR: Vanished classmates — the effects of local immigration enforcement on student enrollment. 10% decline in Hispanic student enrollment under local ICE partnerships; 300,000+ students displaced. siepr.stanford.edu
  • EdWorkingPapers: Academic performance and immigration enforcement. Research on test score declines among U.S.-born and foreign-born Spanish-speaking students following enforcement activity. edworkingpapers.com
  • UCLA: Bullying, missed school among effects of immigration enforcement on high schools. National survey of 600+ high school principals documenting bullying, anxiety, and absenteeism. newsroom.ucla.edu
  • National Education Association: Trauma from immigration raids in classrooms. Educator perspectives on the mental health and community impacts of enforcement activity. nea.org
  • American Immigration Council: U.S. citizen children impacted by immigration enforcement. americanimmigrationcouncil.org
Understand the full picture See why schools have a legal and ethical obligation to protect students during immigration enforcement.
Why Schools Should Be Safe → Why It Matters Overview