ICE video near schools sparks fear among Dallas ISD community

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 25: Protesters participate in a march and rally from City College to Columbia University on April 25, 2025 in New York City. The demonstrators, many of them supporters of Palestine, demanded an end to cuts in university fun

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DALLAS - Dallas parents, teachers, and community members are urging Dallas ISD to take a stance against Trump administration immigration enforcement, expressing fear that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations could instill fear in students.

Dallas ISD parents concerned about ICE raids on campus

Community members and parents asked the DISD school board to take a stance against the Trump Administration's ICE raids after a social media video circulated last week of agents near school campuses.

What we know:

Parents and community members gave testimonies before the Dallas ISD board regarding concerns that ICE agents could be deployed to district schools to carry out immigration enforcement. Opponents of these potential policies talked about their worries about the impact on children, parents, and family separation.

"Our schools should be safe places of joy, curiosity and growth — not fear, surveillance, and intimidation," said Lauren Stockridge, a Dallas ISD parent, to the board. "I'm here today to ask you to take clear, public, and permanent action to ban ICE from all school property in our district."

The backstory:

In January, the Trump administration authorized ICE to operate on or near school property.

Dallas ISD's Stance

According to the Dallas ISD website, the district's Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution in February 2017 to designate all Dallas ISD schools as "welcoming and protective to the fullest extent of the law."

The website further states that ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are not permitted to access non-public areas of a campus — meaning areas other than the entrance or lobby — until the campus principal receives guidance from Dallas ISD Police and the district's attorneys.

Local perspective:

Last week, photos circulated on social media reportedly showing ICE agents near two schools in Dallas' Bachman Lake area. These images instilled fear among some faculty and students, who worried that ICE might be planning immigration raids on district campuses.

A spokesperson for the Dallas ICE Office told The Dallas Morning News that agents were indeed in the Bachman Lake area but denied they were on school campuses.