Chicago School Immigration Report Raises Fears, But Turns Out It’s Wrong

When two men with Confederate badges arrived at the doors of a Chicago public school Friday morning, school officials did what they were trained to do.

Thinking the men were U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, officials refused to let them into John H. Hamline Elementary, which enrolls children in kindergarten through eighth grade in a predominantly Latino neighborhood on the city’s southwest side.

The school immediately notified Chicago Public Schools officials, who quickly issued a statement.

“ICE agents were not allowed to enter the school and were not allowed to speak with students or staff,” the statement said.

But the school was wrong: these agents were from the Secret Service, not ICE. They were investigating a threat against a person appointed by their agency to protect them, related to the ban on TikTok, a Secret Service spokesman said an hour later.

A spokesman for Anthony Guglielmi declined to name the person who was threatened. Staff went to a nearby home to try to talk to the minor, and then tried the school, but were unsuccessful.

But the amendment came too late to stop the fear and panic that was already taking place in Chicago neighborhoods because of rumors of an immigration attack. For weeks, many residents have been reeling from the Trump administration’s vow to deport undocumented immigrants, worried they could end up in workplaces, churches, and even schools. ICE agents.

“It looks like it’s a really big miscommunication,” Mr. Guglielmi said in an interview.

Mr. Guglielmi said the agents identified themselves as being from the Secret Service, and had their badges stamped with the words “National Security Agency.”

“I just want to be clear – the Secret Service will never investigate any immigration case,” he said. He noted that the agency had a regular presence in Chicago, where former President Barack Obama still has a home.

An ICE spokeswoman said there was no immigration enforcement activity at or near the school.

Some school systems in states like New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois reached out to parents on Friday to try to reassure them that the agency is not allowed in schools. federal without a court order.

In Chicago, as in other areas that limit the extent to which local authorities cooperate with federal efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, schools do not ask parents about immigration status of their children.

Outside John H. Hamline Elementary in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, several parents came to pull their children out of class early as reports spread through text messages and Facebook. it was wrong that there was an immigration officer in the school. Even Gov. JB Pritzker took to social media to talk about reports of an “attack” at an elementary school.

“Within an hour of what happened, the community came together,” said Berto Aguayo, a community organizer who rushed to the school when he heard ICE agents were there.

Mr. Aguayo distributed leaflets in English and Spanish advising people of their rights, which immigration advocates had been carrying throughout the week.

“We want to make sure that parents who send their children to school will be safe,” he said.

Dana Goldstein contributed to the report.