Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools added a new section on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to its law enforcement regulations earlier this month amid scrutiny of its approach to handling immigration enforcement.
The new guidelines, Section IV of O-ELX/R, provide the most detailed public outline yet of the district’s procedures for responding to ICE operations. It comes as school districts across the country scramble to respond to uneasy communities after the Trump administration allowed ICE to conduct operations on schools last year.
Among other things, it instructs principals to ask ICE agents to leave campus if they don’t have a valid warrant or subpoena — and to call the CMS Police Department if agents refuse.
If ICE presents a valid warrant or subpoena to question a student, the regulation instructs principals to contact parents so they can be present for the interview — or to be present themselves if a parent cannot attend.
It also tells principals to contact the district’s Office of General Counsel to verify credentials and the validity of all warrants and subpoenas. It suggests principals document the interactions, including the number of agents, how they are dressed and other notable behaviors.
The new section was added Aug. 1 in response to the change in federal guidance. It also came after WFAE and others reported on a CMS webinar warning principals that school lobbies and parking lots are “public” spaces that all law enforcement could enter freely, like the general public. That now includes ICE, the webinar noted, since the federal government allows ICE operations at schools.
That webinar prompted concern from community members, with some arguing CMS wasn’t doing enough to protect students and staff from ICE enforcement. Many called for more clarity on district policies regarding ICE.
School officials have since sought to tamp down concerns, arguing that ICE can’t indiscriminately set up on school campuses. CMS board member Liz Monterrey-Duvall referenced the district’s regulation at last week’s school board meeting in response to community concerns.
“Everyone here deeply cares about our students, about our staff and protecting them,” Monterrey-Duvall said. “But the reality is that we didn’t create this. This comes from the federal and state, and that is where our anger and frustration should go to, not the local school board.”
Responding to questions about ICE operations at a back-to-school press conference on Tuesday, Superintendent Crystal Hill reiterated that law enforcement cannot go on school grounds without proper documentation.
“So the idea that any law enforcement is going to run into our schools and do anything like that, that would be illegal activity,” Hill said, noting teachers would also be trained on district policy.
While CMS would notify families if ICE wants to speak to their child, she noted the district would not send out notice to families about ICE enforcement off-campus.
“It would be very presumptuous for us to look at a vehicle and assume who they are or what they may be doing,” Hill said. “So we would not interject ourself into any law enforcement that’s not actually happening on our campus.”
