Plainclothes DHS Agents Lied to LA School Officials to Question Elementary Students

The superintendent of Los Angeles public schools, Alberto M. Carvalho, confirmed Thursday that plainclothes federal immigration agents lied to school officials this week in order to gain access to two elementary schools to question several children—which the schools refuses to grant.

Carvalho told reporters that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents told the principals of Lillian Street Elementary School and Russell Elementary School that they had permission from the four children's caretakers to question them—a claim that "was confirmed to be a falsehood," CBS News reported.

The Biden administration barred immigration agents from trying to conduct enforcement operations in "sensitive" areas like schools and places of worship, but President Donald Trump reversed that policy after taking office, with former acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman saying, "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest."

The five children DHS sought to question on Monday ranged from first to sixth graders.

"My very first question starts there, what interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first grader?" Carvalho told CBS News. "No federal agency has the authority, short of a judicial warrant, that means the equivalent of a criminal subpoena to enter our schools."

Kate Cagle of Spectrum News 1 SoCal reported that the agents wore plain clothes and that children came to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and are in the care of legal guardians.

"My very first question starts there, what interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first grader?"

Schools are not required to allow immigration agents onto their campuses without being presented with a warrant. In February, Denver's public school district sued the Trump administration over its policy allowing DHS to attempt raids in schools, saying it had led to decreased attendance as families fear potential enforcement actions in their children's classrooms.

"I am proud of these principals, I am proud of our workforce, I am proud of the clerical staff in the front office, for they did exactly what we trained them to do," said Carvalho. "We declared back in August and September and October that at Los Angeles Unified [School District] we have protocols in place and training in place to prepare our workforce in... protection of our students."

The Los Angeles schools were targeted days after a school principal in the small town of Sackets Harbor, New York, joined the community in demanding the safe return of three children and their mother after they were arrested and detained in a Texas facility by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

"As the principal of these students, I need to speak plainly," wrote Jaime Cook in a letter that went viral. "Our three students who were taken by ICE were doing everything right... They are not criminals. They have no ties to any criminal activity. They are loved by their classmates... We are in shock—and it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students' release."

A rally over the weekend drew more than 1,000 people in the town of just 1,351—part of New York's most reliably Republican congressional district, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and the part-time home of Tom Homan, Trump's border czar.

The children were released along with their mother on Monday after the weekend rally, and were back in school on Wednesday.