Two Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools prevented Department of Homeland Security officers from entering campus to perform welfare checks on five migrant children who reportedly entered the U.S. by themselves.
On April 7, the agents arrived at Lillian Street Elementary and Russell Elementary to check on the children but were turned away by the schools’ principals, who feared the officers were there for immigration enforcement matters.
‘DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked.’
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho applauded the principals for turning away the federal officers.
“What interest should a Homeland Security agent have in a first-grader?” Carvalho stated during a press conference. “They wanted access to the students to determine their well-being based on, according to the agents, the fact that when they entered this country, they entered as unaccompanied minors.”
“It is well-known that these students are under the care of relatives,” Carvalho declared.
He admitted that the agents confirmed they were not with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he noted that they arrived in unmarked vehicles and were wearing casual clothing.
“When the principals attempted to write down details about their IDs, they quickly hid their IDs,” Carvalho claimed.
According to the superintendent, the agents claimed that the legal guardians had permitted them to check on children at school. Carvalho insisted that was “absolutely, blatantly untrue.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and 17 other Democrats sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding the agency “desist from immigration enforcement activity targeting children who pose no threat to public safety.”
The letter stated that the officers arrived at the schools without warrants and were “rightly turned away.”
“LAUSD staff have informed us that the four students targeted at Russell Elementary were not, in fact, unaccompanied minors,” the letter claimed. “We therefore demand that your (sic) provide a briefing to our offices to prove your claims about the agency’s operations.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin addressed the incident in a Sunday post on X.
She wrote, “[Homeland Security Investigations] officers were at these schools conducting wellness checks on children who arrived unaccompanied at the border. This had *nothing* to do with immigration enforcement.”
“DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked,” McLaughlin continued. “Unlike the previous administration, President [Donald] Trump and Secretary Noem take the responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to reunite children with their families.”
McLaughlin stated that Noem and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “have already reunited nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children with a relative or safe guardian” after former President Joe Biden’s administration lost track of 320,000 unaccompanied migrant children.
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