Federal Agents Turn Up at Two LA Schools Seeking ‘Access’ to Young Children

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Federal agents who were denied entrance to two Los Angeles elementary schools this week were seeking “access” to five young students attending those schools, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Thursday.

News of U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents showing up at Lillian Street Elementary School and Russell Elementary School in South Los Angeles’ Florence-Graham neighborhood was confirmed by the district Wednesday. A spokesperson said the agents were turned away by school administrators at both schools. 

The federal agents’ appearances — with as many as four showing up at one time looking for information on children in grades one through six — were believed to be the first reported cases of Homeland Security authorities attempting to enter a U.S. school. 

Carvalho said in both cases the federal agents falsely told school officials they were given authorization by the caretakers of the children to visit their schools and get ”access” to the students. 

“The agents represented in both instances to the principals that they wanted access to the students to determine their well being,” said Carvalho at a press conference Thursday morning “It is disturbing that during that conversation, they conveyed to both principals that the parents or the legal guardians… provided them authorization for access to these kids in school. That is absolutely, blatantly untrue.”

Carvalho said he believes the visits were related to federal immigration enforcement actions. Representatives for DHS did not immediately respond to a request for information. 

“The children are okay, but the communities are feeling fear, and that is a shame,” said Carvalho, a Portuguese immigrant and critic of President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies. 

“I am still mystified as to how a first, second, third, fourth or sixth grader, would pose any type of risk to the national security of our nation, that would require Homeland Security to deploy its agents to two elementary schools,” he said. 

The news comes as families and educators in the nation’s second-largest school district prepare for federal crackdowns amid fear of federal enforcement among the many immigrant families in Los Angeles. 

On Monday, four officers who identified themselves as Homeland Security agents turned up at Russell Elementary’s front office asking questions about four students enrolled in grades 1-4 at the school, Carvalho said.

The school’s administration turned the agents away after determining they did not have a warrant, Carvalho said.

Hours later, he said, another group of agents visited Lillian Street Elementary in search of information regarding a student enrolled in the sixth grade. Those agents, too, were turned away by school officials after it was determined they didn’t have a warrant.

The groups of officers from the federal agency showed up at the two schools in plain clothes, Carvalho said.

Immigration agents may not be given access to schools unless they possess a warrant.

President Trump has vowed to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants in his second term, but enforcement actions around public schools have so far been limited.

LAUSD appears to be the only school district that has seen federal agents turn up at the schoolhouse door. A visit by federal agents to a Chicago school earlier this year turned out to be members of the Secret Service pursuing an investigation. More recently, what were believed to be federal agents parked outside a school in Seattle turned out to actually be the local police.

Carvalho said it didn’t matter that the agents were affiliated with DHS, as opposed to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, because the agencies collaborate on enforcement.

Carvalho said the district’s legal department has been informed of the federal visits.

In standing against federal immigration enforcement, Carvalho has the backing of his board, which has passed a series of resolutions stating that L.A. Unified will be a sanctuary for immigrant students.

But even with the actions by the school board, immigrant families fear they could be swept up and arrested or deported in a federal immigration roundup, said Evelyn Aleman, founder of Our Voice, a parents’ group which advocates for LA Unified’s low-income and Spanish-speaking families.

“Our families are in distress over being separated and deported,” said Aleman.

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