Stripped of safe haven status, local schools face immigration enforcement threat

Role of Leelanau sheriff’s department remains unclear

(Photo, clockwise l-r: Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich; undated migrant farmworker photo by Gary Howe; Customs & Border Patrol 2018 stakeout and arrest photo by Rob Sirrine; farmer Jim Bardenhagen photo by Taro Yamasaki.)

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich will face tough questions from commissioners, and comments from citizens, at the Board of Commissioners meeting at the County Government Center at 9:30 am on Tuesday morning, Feb. 11 — following his recent statements to local media that, if asked, he would cooperate with federal agents arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants.

The sheriff went a step further last week, telling the Leelanau Enterprise that “county police would also help federal agents if they chose to conduct raids at local schools.” Before Donald Trump returned to The White House on Jan. 20 and issued a flurry of executive orders — some of which targeted immigrant communities — schools, churches and hospitals were considered safe havens.

However, Borkovich considered immigration raids at Leelanau County schools “unlikely”. During a Jan. 10 meeting with the superintendents of the county’s four public schools, he said he didn’t think it would be “necessary” for federal agents to visit local schools, according to two administrators who attended that meeting and who spoke with the Glen Arbor Sun.

Days after Trump’s inauguration, Jim Bardenhagen and a handful of Leelanau farmers also met with Borkovich in an effort to convey to the sheriff the importance of immigrant and migrant farmworkers to the region’s agricultural economy. They left that meeting feeling that the sheriff understood their concerns.

“I hope he respects what he told us at the meeting with farmers,” Bardenhagen told the Sun following recent reports that, if asked, Borkovich would work with federal agents. Bardenhagen added that mass deportations, which Trump has threatened, would have an enormous impact on the nation’s food supply.

The Hispanic community is crucial to Leelanau’s agricultural workforce. Out of 22,000 county residents — according to the latest Census — as many as 1,000 identify as Hispanic or Latino. Many have an undocumented parent or family member living here in northern Michigan, now as rooted here as the pine trees, though they may have crossed illegally into the United States years ago.

More than 60 percent of farmworkers in the United States are immigrants, according to data from the Department of Labor; more than 40 percent may be undocumented.

“Depending on what happens here, we reserve the right to request a follow-up meeting with the sheriff,” said Bardenhagen.

 

“Do we run?”

Bruce Randall, a migrant aid at Leland Public School, has noticed an undercurrent of fear among Latino students in the weeks since Trump took office.

“‘What do we do if la migra comes?’ I’ve heard them say,” offered Randall (Migra is slang in Spanish for immigration enforcement. “‘Do we run? Do we hide?’ These kids at our school are typically here legally, but someone in their household might not be.”

One Hispanic community liaison in northern Michigan, who preferred to remain anonymous, worried the current political climate could encourage racial profiling.

“The fear and worry is very present in our students. They are witnessing such difficult times in our country. Mainly aimed at our race, which worries our students that they will be targeted. Even though they are citizens, the worry that they can be stopped and questioned has them hyper vigilant,” she shared. “We want to be proud of who we are and be vocal in speaking our native language. But will that get us in trouble?”

Jesus, a Mexican-American who was born and raised in Leelanau, shared that undocumented members of his family have changed their regular schedules and no longer visit grocery stores in the county or in Traverse City.

“There’s lots of fear in the community,” said an undocumented Leelanau resident. “Parents are working, their kids are at school, but they are no longer going on trips to Traverse City for activities or for entertainment.”

 

Border Patrol stakeout

On the morning of March 22, 2018, undercover U.S. Customers and Border Patrol agents driving a black F-150 pickup parked next to the church adjacent to Leland school and allegedly monitored people as they entered the school. The agents then sped through Leland and arrested a school parent and longtime local small business owner as he drove on M-204 toward Lake Leelanau.

Fellow parent Rob Sirrine took photos of the arrest and posted about it on Facebook: “They are lurking around schools and driving unsafely,” Sirrine wrote. “You would think that with all of the issues around schools, the federal government would have more tact than that.”

The Leelanau resident spent one month in a detention facility in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, before he was released. His wife described that time as “traumatic and painful. We couldn’t visit him. The kids couldn’t enter the jail because they were too young. We could only talk on the phone, and that was expensive.”

Community members stepped up. Neighbors brought hot meals, took her kids to the movies, and sent letters and cards to an immigration judge advocating on her husband’s behalf.

“It was surreal when I learned my Dad had been picked up,” said his son, a sophomore at the time. “You don’t think it will happen to you or your family.”

The son recalled that in the ensuing weeks, Leland’s principal would stand outside on the curb as school buses arrived, watching for any unmarked or suspicious cars.

 

Ensuring a safe learning environment

“Our number one responsibility is to ensure a safe, trusted learning environment for every student and adult,” said Leland superintendent Stephanie Long. In recent weeks her staff has reviewed their standard physical and mental health safety protocols, including what to do if a visitor enters the building without first checking with the main office.

“Our emphasis is on protecting the privacy of our students and staff and protecting the physical space of our building.”

Glen Lake superintendent Jason Misner said that, while his staff abides by all federal, state and local policies, “we also have our FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) policies to ensure the safety of our students. We’re not allowed legally to collect a student’s immigration status.”

Law enforcement agents would need a subpoena or judicial warrant in order to access a student’s records.

Traverse City Area Public Schools recently issued a community bulletin titled “Guidance Surrounding Immigration & Customs Enforcement,” which stipulated that:

“School officials must balance three separate obligations: (1) to not interfere with a federal criminal investigation; (2) to ensure student privacy and confidentiality in accordance with state and federal law; and (3) to not interfere with an undocumented noncitizen student’s ability to enroll in and attend school free from discrimination based on national origin, citizenship or immigration status, or homelessness.”

TCAPS recommended that its school officials: not ask students or families about citizenship status, including in the enrollment process; keep student or family citizenship and immigration status confidential; notify and involve the superintendent … as soon as practicable when staff receive any inquiries, demands, or directives related to immigration enforcement; require an officer to produce a warrant or other lawful order before providing student records, and document the interactions and all steps taken to verify that the official is operating under proper legal authority.

 

Cost of ICE raids at schools

In a Feb. 4 story for The 74 Million, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. education system, Rebecca Lowenhaupt and Emily Crawford-Rossi, wrote that “even the threat of immigration raids can undermine attendance and the trust educators have developed with families.”

With schools, churches and hospitals no longer considered safe zones under Trump’s administration, the authors worry that “students who are undocumented or in families with mixed legal status will stop attending school and fall behind; families will no longer participate in school events; and they may limit or stop communicating with teachers and schools altogether.

“Akin to pandemic-related school closures and disruptions, many school districts with immigration populations – both in border states and elsewhere – will once again face disruption and crises to manage this. Educational leaders and K-12 educators are on high alert as they consider how to respond to immediate threats of enforcement and the ongoing, wide-ranging effects of mobilizing fear. Furthermore, those supporting immigrant communities are now under threat to comply with enforcement actions they may oppose.”

Lowenhaupt and Crawford-Rossi recommend that schools: “establish guidelines and train all staff about what to do if there are reports of ICE agents either in the neighborhood or trying to enter school; anticipate sustained uncertainty by supporting immigrant families and training educators in preparedness planning, and deepen ongoing efforts to create cultures of care amid disruption by addressing issues of safety and belonging now.”

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