Students, teachers and supporters sent a message to the Detroit Public Schools Community District at a protest in Clark Park on Tuesday, Nov. 25, just days after two classmates were taken by federal immigration officials and sent to a detention facility:
“Our school’s not feeling safe anymore − They gotta care more. They can’t just keep brushing us off,” said Valerie Brown, 17, a student at Western International High School, referring to district administrators.
Surrounding her, dozens of protestors with signs that read “stop ICE, end kidnappings” and “protect immigrants.”
Federal immigration agents say they served a search warrant on a home the morning of Nov. 20 and detained individuals who were not legally in the country. That included two 16-year-olds.
George Washington, an attorney among the families’ legal team, confirmed the teens are also students at Western International High School right next to Clark Park. They were asleep and had petitions for asylum pending and lawful work permits, he said, and were sent to a detention facility in Texas.
Agents were searching the residence for a different migrant who had escaped custody in Oak Park last week, federal authorities said. In that incident, an agent had detained a man and woman from Ecuador, accused of illegally being in the United States. The agent used a stun gun on the woman, after officials say she and the man assaulted the agent, including choking him, authorities said.
The three of those detained on Nov. 20 were from Venezuela, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The man who fled was captured as well.
President Donald Trump has ramped-up efforts to detain those federal authorities allege are in the country unlawfully and dangerous. People who have been detained have also included children and asylum seekers who, for decades, were generally not targeted unless they posed a public safety risk. Roughly three-quarters of those held have no criminal convictions, according to TRAC at Syracuse University, an organization that provides data and statistics on federal law enforcement.
The teens are at least the second and third Detroit students detained by federal immigration authorities this year. In the spring, the arrest and deportation of 18-year-old Western International student Maykol Bogoya-Duarte also drew protests across the city.
A spokesperson for the Detroit Public Schools Community District did not immediately return an email request for comment Nov. 25.
After two more of their classmates were taken, the students at Clark Park weren’t afraid to call out who they think is to blame and to push for more protection. And in the crowd listening were state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit.
“I blame the district. I blame the government. And I blame the city for not better advocating for the kids’ safety,” said Kenneth Russell, 17, a student at Southeastern High School.
His classmates should go to school every day not worrying about being detained and “sent halfway across the damn country,” he said.
“We’re all humans.”
Ra’Niya Nunn, 18, a student at Cass Tech High School was also direct.
“Our parents put trust in our schools so we are protected when they are not there. Our parents pray at night for their children’s safety. They trust and hold DPSCD to hold the same.”
Instead, her classmates were “preyed on,” she said, “and now two mothers don’t have their children.”
“We need to organize, we need to build a community. There is no ‘me’ in ‘I,’ there is a ‘we’ and ‘us.'”
Western International teacher: ICE detention is ‘absolutely disgraceful’
When reached for comment about the teenagers’ arrest, Youssef Fawaz, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Detroit, said:
“While executing a search warrant for an escaped fugitive Ecuadoran national who assaulted a Detroit Border Patrol Agent last week, agents encountered three Venezuelan aliens who were illegally present in the United States. All were taken into custody on Nov 20 and transferred to ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.”
Fawaz was referencing the arrest in metro Detroit last week, when two Ecuadorian migrants allegedly struck an agent. A video quickly spread online showing agents shoving her body, her hands zip-tied, into their vehicle. Calls and emails to the woman’s lawyer were not returned Friday.
Kristen Schoettle, who English at Western International and worked with the teenagers taken by ICE, said at the protest at Clark Park that no one would have known what happened to the teens if it wasn’t for another student who reached out, afraid for his friends.
“We need better systems in place to deal with this,” Schoettle said. “We need immediate access to legal support.”
She described the detained students as gentle, quiet. The girl was “a little alternative,” and she had shared the same music taste with Schoettle. Their teacher said that if the public had known of their detention sooner, they could have filed a motion for them to stay in Michigan rather than taken to Texas.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that these kids are being punished, are being criminalized, just for having some dreams. They were doing everything right. Their paperwork was in order … they have a court date coming up. And they are in jail. It’s disgusting,” Schoettle said.
Washington, though, remains hopeful.
“I think we have a real chance of getting them out and getting them back here,” where their cases will then be decided, he told the crowd. He was met with a roar of applause.
“What’s really important is not only what the lawyers do, but what people here do,” Washington continued, calling for public pressure. “The judges look at this.”
Then together, the crowd began to chant: “Let our friends go.”
Guidance sent to Oakland County schools
In Oakland County, Prosecutor Karen McDonald sent out an advisory to schools in the county after ICE activity prompted a shelter-in-place order for Clarkston schools on Nov. 19. The advisory emphasized: “no one should ever interfere with ICE or law enforcement. Doing so increases the risk for everyone.”
The advisory also reminded districts that ICE can enter public areas of schools, like the main offices, parking lots, or lobbies. To enter non-public areas like classrooms, they’d need a warrant or “explicit consent from authorized school officials.”
And it listed key steps districts can take to prepare themselves for ICE activity, some of which are provided below:
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at asahouri@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Anti-ICE protest at Clark Park has message for leaders at Detroit schools
Reporting by Andrea May Sahouri, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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