Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) and 17 other House Democrats are demanding that officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) justify their actions during an attempted visit to two Los Angeles elementary schools last week.
In a letter sent Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the lawmakers requested a briefing regarding the operation.
Garcia stated, “If you falsely claim to be conducting welfare checks while actually targeting children for deportation, you undermine willingness to cooperate with law enforcement, provoke fear, and undermine public trust.”
The lawmakers are also urging the agency to cease all immigration enforcement activities concerning children who do not pose a public safety threat.
Federal agents reportedly arrived unannounced and without a judicial warrant last Monday at Russell Elementary and Lillian Street Elementary in the Florence-Graham neighborhood of South Los Angeles.
They sought to speak with five students, ranging from first-graders to sixth-graders, but were denied access by school principals.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho mentioned that the agents claimed they were conducting wellness checks and falsely asserted that they had permission from the students’ families for the visit.
The agents identified themselves as being part of Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but did not wear uniforms and hesitated to show their official identification, Carroll noted.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to the controversy, stating that the agents were there to check on the well-being of children who had arrived unaccompanied at the border.
She stated that DHS aims to ensure these children “are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked” and claimed that any assertions of lying on the part of the officers are false.
“Our law enforcement clearly identified themselves and made it clear this was a welfare check and not an immigration enforcement action,” McLaughlin said.
Garcia’s letter highlighted that school district staff informed lawmakers that the four students targeted at Russell Elementary were not, in fact, unaccompanied minors.
This discrepancy raises significant questions regarding the claims made by the Department and the safety of constituents, the lawmakers argued.
They emphasized that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that all students have the right to a public education, regardless of their immigration status.
Should parents and children feel unable to access schools due to fear of deportation or harassment, this right is effectively denied.
An email sent to elected officials, including Garcia, from an LAUSD government liaison stated that the agents requested information about the welfare of four students at Russell Elementary whom they identified as unaccompanied minors, which LAUSD later disputed.
In a subsequent statement, an LAUSD spokesperson clarified that the government liaison misspoke and indicated that the district does not collect information on the immigration status of any of the targeted children.
Garcia’s office did not comment on LAUSD’s clarification regarding the statement made by the government liaison.
The situation comes amid heightened scrutiny regarding the treatment of migrant children, especially following claims made by former President Trump and other Republicans that upwards of 300,000 migrant children are “missing, dead, sex slaves or slaves”—claims that appear based on a report by the DHS Office of Inspector General citing 323,000 children who had not been served notices to appear in immigration court or who had failed to appear at their hearings since 2019.
The report noted that children who do not appear for court are considered at a higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.
The incidents in Los Angeles have left educators nationwide feeling anxious about how to protect immigrant students.
Garcia, a member of the House Homeland Security committee, is investigating whether this was the first operation of its kind by federal immigration agents at K-12 schools across the country.
He believes similar actions may occur in the future and emphasized the need for communities to be prepared to respond, as the staff at these schools did.
Garcia stressed that the targeted schools serve low-income families in neighborhoods known for having some of the country’s highest immigrant and Latino populations.
“They’re targeting vulnerable communities,” he remarked.
“They’re not being truthful about what they’re doing and permissions that they have. That’s really concerning and has got to be known to people.”
image source from：https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-14/house-democracts-demand-briefing-immigration-agents-enter-la-elementary-schools
