Blair staff meeting outlined how the school will ensure student safety and security. Montgomery Blair High School, along with several other schools and counties, has taken action to address the growing concerns surrounding the U. Blair Principal Kevin Yates went on to outline the basic and long-existing protocol for what the school and staff should do if an ICE officer is requesting to enter the building. The first step is to meet with the officer at the main doors where all visitors are scanned for entry.
The officer should then be advised to wait outside of the building until the school is able to contact and receive guidance from the Office of the General Counsel. School security is to notify their supervisors of the event as well as the parents or guardians of any students in question. If an ICE officer fails to comply with instructions, staff must not attempt to physically interfere but should remain in contact with the legal counsel.
While taking the threat of immigration enforcement in and near schools seriously, Principal Yates assured that local ICE officials have affirmed that the agency is only interested in undocumented adult people with criminal records, excluding the vast majority of those attending Blair, especially as most students are minors.
Vasquez expressed that under the Trump administration, the organization had begun to focus more heavily on protecting and defending communities that could be impacted by the new policies. Stressing that he could not provide any formal legal advice, he shared some of his knowledge regarding the subject of immigration enforcement, describing three different types of interactions one could have with ICE: sightings, targeted enforcement, and raids.
Sightings simply involve seeing an ICE officer or vehicle without experiencing any conflict with the agency. Targeted enforcement describes when officers are looking for a specific person but may partake in collateral arrests if information on the legal status of those not initially sought out is revealed to them. Raids describe large-scale efforts, sometimes in collaboration with local law enforcement, to arrest anyone deportable in a given area.
