Federal immigration officers denied entry at a Chicago elementary school, CPS officials say

CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools prevented federal immigration officers from going into an elementary school on Chicago’s Southwest Side Friday and talking to students, according to school officials.

The agents showed up at 11:15 a.m. to Hamline Elementary School, located at 1548 W. 48th St. in the New City neighborhood, Principal Natasha Ortega said at a news conference. She said the school’s employees “followed the protocols that we’ve been trained and practiced and have discussed,” ensuring students’ safety.

“We will not open our doors for ICE, and we are here to protect our children and make sure they have access to an excellent education,” Ortega said. “We stand in solidarity with our families and the Back of the Yards community.”

School officials indicated the officers were from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, however an ICE spokesperson denied in a statement that the encounter involved the agency. CPS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This immigration action appears to be the first at a Chicago school after President Donald Trump took office. Officials within Trump’s administration have indicated that large-scale raids to detain undocumented immigrants would begin this week in Chicago.

Trump reversed a policy this week that for more than a decade has prevented ICE from carrying out immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations,” such as healthcare facilities, daycares, churches, and schools. His executive orders have also sought to end birthright citizenship and deploy troops to enhance border security.

A woman named Sandra, who asked only to be identified by her first name, teared up as she recounted hearing earlier on Friday that ICE agents had been to the building.

Sandra, 28, had attended Hamline herself and was there to pick up her niece, she said.

“Them being here, to me, crosses a boundary,” she said.

Sandra described herself as a “first-gen kid” and said she was prepared to defend her neighborhood against raids. She guessed that her niece had friends and classmates who might be targeted in a raid.

A CPS safe passage worker handed out a stack of “know your rights” pamphlets and cards to families walking by just east of the building. They’d started work an hour early at 1 p.m., she said. She hadn’t seen much of note around the school beyond more police presence, she said, but it had been a strange day anyway.

“These people are just scared,” she said, pressing another information card into a woman’s hand.

Hamline Elementary has a student population that is around 92% Hispanic as of 2024, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Gov. JB Pritzker has previously said he’s heard that ICE will target as many as 2,000 people in Chicago, but that he hasn’t received any communication from the Trump administration. Fears of mass deportations have worried some of the area’s roughly 400,000 undocumented immigrants, prompting many to skip work and keep their kids out of school.

Chicago Public Schools have said they remain committed to protecting the rights of all students to a public education, providing guidance to staff to not allow immigration officers on school property unless they provide credentials and a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge. Hospitals and medical centers throughout Chicago are taking similar measures.

“CPS does not ask for our families’ immigration status. We will not coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (We do not) share student records with ICE except in the rare case where this is a court order or consent from a parent or a guardian,” chief education officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said at the Friday news conference.

A Chicago Police Department spokesperson said the department “was not aware of the incident” prior to the arrival of ICE personnel at the school. At no point Friday did CPD officers respond to any calls for service at Hamline, the spokesperson said.

Leaders across Illinois react

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office didn’t immediately respond to request for comment, but indicated it’s looking into the incident. Pritzker said on social media that reports of the raid come after a week of “Republicans sowing fear and chaos.”

“Targeting children and separating families is cruel and un-American,” Pritzker said.

A few minutes before the school’s 2:45 p.m. dismissal, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said the incident should mark a “moment of solidarity.” The union has urged CPS to recommit to certain protections against deportation in the four-year contract they’re bargaining for.

“I want to reiterate as a mother that our schools are a safe place,” she said. “And that they have my leadership and commitment, they have the leadership and the commitment of the 30,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union and that we will be here to support, to resource and to protect our young people.”

Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter called the action in a statement “an attack on not just Chicago’s immigrant community, but our entire city.”

“Chicago is a city of immigrants. I am proud of the way workers and CPS stood firm to defend their students and staff from harassment,” he said. “We will not be bullied. We know our rights and will continue to make sure our community knows how to exercise their legal rights.”

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