During the Biden and Obama administrations, schools were considered “sensitive locations”, and agents were barred from entering with few exceptions.
The Trump Administration eliminated those policies in January, allowing agents to make arrests at schools, hospitals, and churches.
There have been few such arrests, and the Department of Homeland Security has said it does not plan to raid or target schools.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin disputed that the woman was arrested inside the school, saying she was detained in “a vestibule”.
The outer doors to the school are open to the public, but to enter through a second set of double doors, staff must buzz in parents and faculty after verifying their identity.
Bystander video of the arrest shows agents in both the lobby area and farther inside the school.
Immigration officers generally are allowed to enter public areas of a building without a warrant, unless it is a private property where there is a “reasonable expectation of privacy”.
“If they can do this at a day care where children are, where will they not go?” said Chicago Alderman Matt Martin, who represents the North Side community where the preschool is located.
Witnesses said the teacher was followed by a dark-coloured SUV as she rode to school in the passenger seat of a sedan.
According to DHS, officers attempted to pull the vehicle over with sirens and emergency lights, but the driver did not stop.
The agency said that the driver “sped into a shopping plaza where he and the female passenger fled the vehicle”, and then ran into the school and barricaded themselves inside.
“Upon arrest, she lied about her identity,” McLaughlin said.
School officials showed agents the teacher’s employment documents, including a work permit, Martin said, but agents nonetheless detained her. The woman’s name has not been released.
“She’s a wonderful person, a mother, an excellent community member, and a valued and treasured member of the Rayito community,” said Tara Goodarzi, a lawyer whose child attends the school. “We have absolutely no idea why she was targeted.”
Martin said one armed agent stayed inside after the arrest, walked around the facility room to room and questioned several adults. No one reported seeing a warrant, he said.
One teacher who spoke to the Post said that after she heard the commotion, she ran outside to the parking lot and hid in a colleague’s car with a 3-year-old student for more than half an hour.
Goodarzi said she dropped off her child moments after the teacher was taken away and stumbled upon a chaotic scene.
“I walked into a room of crying kids, crying parents and crying teachers,” she said. “It was traumatising.”
In a note to parents, Rayito de Sol’s leadership said that the teacher was detained “when arriving at work” and that it appeared Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had “entered the location despite signage indicating it is a private business, and despite not presenting any judicial warrant”.
“No child should ever be terrorised in their school,” Representative Mike Quigley (D-Illinois) said at a news conference. “This is a violation of public trust and should send shivers down the spine of every parent.”
Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) said she is working with the day care to release surveillance footage from inside the school that will show that McLaughlin’s public statements about DHS actions are false.
She said the footage she reviewed shows that agents went in and questioned another teacher.
It also shows armed, masked men going into four classrooms as adults and children run through the hallways.
“They lie,” Ramirez said of DHS’s account. “They’re lying here.”
The school provides care and instruction to children from 4 months of age to 6 years old and is located in a relatively affluent neighbourhood across the street from one of the city’s best high schools.
The school’s 14 classrooms are staffed by teachers from across Central and South America who parents say are highly qualified.
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