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Immigration has been at the front of the national conversation for years. Many immigrant children experience challenges adjusting to a new country and culture and being fully included in schools. In families without immigration documentation, the fear of family separation, arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and deportation continues to cause anxiety among children and their families.

Millions of young people in the United States are children of immigrant families. And many immigrant children are feeling high levels of fear and anxiety right now due to the current anti-immigrant political environment. All students in the U.S. have a right to public education, “regardless of a child’s or guardian’s citizenship, immigration status, or English language proficiency. These rights were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark 1982 decision in Plyler v.

After recent news and photographs from El Paso—of asylum-seeking families held in chain-link, barbed-wire pens—your immigrant students may be feeling afraid, and you may feel unsure how to support them. These resources recommend steps you can take inside and outside your classroom to address injustice and insist on the human dignity of all people, no matter where they're born.

Legally obligated to enroll and support immigrant students—regardless of status—public schools often present numerous obstacles for young people and their families.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that it's a "school decision" whether educators report undocumented students to ICE. Not only does this suggestion conflict with settled law, but it also fundamentally undermines the promise of our schools as a place where all students can thrive. This edition of The Moment offers guidance on how to speak up for the children in your care.