Sarah Orozco was getting her children ready for school on April 3 when she saw a message from another parent. They had seen law enforcement questioning someone near Foreign Language Academy, in Kansas City’s midtown neighborhood.
Parents worried it could be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, posing a threat to the school’s families who don’t have legal status in the country.
“We have lots of families who, because of the political climate, have been very reserved in sending their students to schools at times,” Orozco said. “This is one of those times where that reservation was heightened and just out of fear, not only for the students, but for the parents as well.”
The school’s principal said later that day in a letter to families that Kansas City Public Schools confirmed the officers weren’t related to any immigration service or enforcement.
A KCPS spokesperson told KCUR that a person was detained on the street outside Foreign Language Academy during student drop-off time by authorities who identified themselves as federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
A DEA spokesperson said the agency was near the school as part of an ongoing investigation.
Although ICE agents weren’t at the school, President Donald Trump’s deportation plans and drove of executive actions targeting immigrants have left many Kansas City-area families fearful and anxious in the wake of potential detentions.
Revolución Educativa, a Latino education advocacy nonprofit, shared a call for accountability and action on behalf of the public concern sparked by the detainment outside of the school.
“It reflects a deeper, city-wide failure to adequately prepare every school building for incidents involving federal agency presence,” the letter said. “In the absence of clear protocols and training, our communities were left to fill the gaps in real time — relying on one another for clarity, safety, and care.”
Even schools are no longer considered to be “sensitive places” that are off limits for immigration officers. The Trump administration rescinded a mandate that immigration enforcement operations shouldn't take place in or near a location that would limit access to "essential" services or activities.
Trinidad Raj Molina is the accompaniment organizer for Advocates For Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation. He said families have been concerned since then about ICE activity at schools.
Families have been preparing and learning more about ICE’s policies around entering schools, but Molina said there was a lingering concern about parents being detained at places that are not private property — like a student pickup line.
“The fear was very real, just for parents and for them in your community,” Molina said. “It's just a sense of like, ‘Oh, is it finally happening? Are we finally at that point?’”
In the months since, there has also been a surge of social media posts and reports of immigration raids across the county — making it difficult to determine what is a real threat. That’s hurt some Missouri businesses as employees are too scared to come to work and customers are too frightened to shop.
Molina said his organization had also heard about some students who are too fearful to attend class because of reports of raids. He said some people share reports of ICE activity on social media without confirming, causing widespread panic quickly.
“Before you spread something, get really specific and accurate with the information, try to vet through other community sources, before it becomes a social media panic,” Molina said.
But some immigration raids and detentions have hit close to home in the Kansas City area. Homeland Security officers detained a student’s adult relative in February at Guadalupe Centers Elementary School. That same month, there was a federal immigration raid on the Mexican restaurant El Potro in Liberty.
Edgar Palacios, CEO and founder of Revolución Educativa, said events like the one on April 3 are nerve-wracking — especially for families with mixed immigration status. He said sometimes very little information is available and families are unsure what is actually happening.
“Not everybody understands the nuances of law enforcement and how it's showing up. Not everybody understands what's happening or the school's responsibility,” Palacios said. “Now this is happening nearby the school, it's going to elevate that sense of not being safe and not being prepared for the moment.”
‘We need to protect those hundreds of students’
The nonprofit and families are calling for more coordination between the school and federal agencies when agents will be conducting business near or around schools.
A KCPS spokesperson said the federal agency did not coordinate or communicate with the school district ahead of time. A spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department said it was not made aware of anything like the situation described.
Orozco said the DEA should have found another, more appropriate location to detain the individual that wasn’t near school grounds around parents and children — and the school district needs to speak on families’ behalf with these agencies to set those guidelines.
“We need to protect those hundreds of students, their safety, avoid trauma — especially trauma-inducing experiences like this that could have been avoided,” Orozco said.
A KCPS spokesperson said the district has procedures to ensure law enforcement are “not unduly encroaching in our schools.” According to the school district, no law enforcement is allowed to enter its schools unless they present proper court documentation, including court orders, subpoenas or warrants.
Those documents have to be examined by the district’s legal team to determine their legitimacy before law enforcement is allowed entry to a school. The district said families would be notified immediately if that took place.
But the spokesperson said the situation at the Foreign Language Academy was difficult because it was outside the school and quickly unfolded on the street during student drop-off time.
“Even so, those who witnessed the incident and those who learned about it were nonetheless impacted by it and understandably want to know the school district is a safe place for their children and families,” a district spokesperson said.
‘What happens next time?’
A DEA spokesperson said the agency can’t comment on policy when asked how and when federal agencies conduct business near or on school property or if they notify school districts ahead of time that they will be working in or near a school.
But for KCPS families, advocates say events like these leave lasting trauma.
Palacios said any federal agency should communicate with district leaders ahead of time if they are going to be near a school, so leaders can prepare their staff and students. If agencies can't figure out how to minimize harm, he said, situations like these will continue to happen and create additional mistrust.
“There are young people and educators and administrators who saw the events (on April 3) and parents who saw the events … that are going to forever be haunted by it,” Palacios said. “To some folks, it doesn't matter. To a lot of people, it does, because what happens next time?”
A KCPS spokesperson said the district has been communicating with families since the incident and will continue to do so.
Earlier this year, the district said it hosted training at all school sites about how staff should respond to situations involving law enforcement and assist families to take advantage of resources.
Superintendent Jennifer Collier shared a list of community resources with families, including counseling for students, staff and families, connection to AIRR and guides to assist families with creating a Family Preparedness Plan.
Other Kansas City-area school districts have been grappling with how to respond to renewed anxieties by preparing staff in case immigration agents try to enter a school and communicating resources with families.
Families want more support
But advocates say most districts are not being very public about their stance — and while school communication has calmed some families’ fears, other parents believe their district’s support is too hesitant.
Orozco said families need support not just after something happens — they need it now. As part of the school’s parent teacher organization, she’s taken on the role of uniting families to talk about these issues.
“We've had families who have not been able to go to work, aren't unable to provide food for their family, having trouble paying their bills because they can't have a job,” Orozco said. “They're let go from their job because of their status, and they're needing support, and the district just doesn't make it extremely easy for them.”
Orozco said information needs to be easier for families to find — many immigrant families rely more on technology like WhatsApp. She said communication with families should also be transparent and not minimize families’ experiences.
She said the district could even hold “know your rights” meetings and rotate them through different schools because all of them have students who could witness a federal agency approach their school or home.
“This is just the reality of the world that we live in these days, and we need to prepare everybody,” Orozco said. “The school is one of the best places.”
Orozco said families felt the initial information shared by the district wasn’t adequate, but are now aware that the school is trying to respond and help. Ultimately, she said they want to feel like the district supports them.
The school district hosted a family session a week after the incident where officials explained the district’s policies and families asked questions, according to Orozco. She said some families left the session with the answers they needed, while others still had questions.
Now, she said families are ready to continue supporting each other and organize more training sessions among themselves and with the district.
“This happened this time with this agency, but we know that it can happen with any agency and at any time, and that now schools, hospitals and churches are no longer considered sanctuaries,” Orozco said.
While many people are living in fear of ICE activity, Molina said it’s important to acknowledge that many “quiet, unsung heroes” are working to prepare their neighborhoods and schools.
“It's also lots of communities quietly strengthening their bonds of trust with each other to support each other,” Molina said.
Palacios said something his organization heard loud and clear from families was “declarations of support without concrete action are not enough.”
He thinks best practices for schools is to get on the same page on how they’ll respond in these types of incidents, including how they’ll communicate what’s happening with families in real time. He thinks there also needs to be the opportunity to have conversations with families that aren’t one-sided when these issues arise.
More than anything, Edgar said families want their children to be safe — and that’s also what educators want.
“I wouldn't say that this is an abject failure from schools,” Palacios said. “I think that this is an opportunity for the community to come together and say that kids matter… and they deserve to be safe, that they deserve to be learning, and that they deserve quality education.”
