San Jose Unified School District, Mayor Promise to Not Cooperate with Federal Immigration Raids

Bowing to pressure from parents, San Jose Unified School District agreed to a resolution Thursday that ensures anonymity for undocumented students and their families.

Under the newly titled “Resolution Supporting Immigrant Students and Families,” the district will not collect information regarding students and their families’ immigration status. The resolution also states that San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD), the largest in the city with roughly 30,900 enrolled students, will also take legal action if it receives requests for information that would threaten an individual’s privacy rights.

“It prevents us from having to share information,” SJUSD spokesman Peter Allen said. “We protect the information by just not asking for it.”

At a Jan. 26 board meeting, SJUSD’s board heard from nearly two-dozen parents who were concerned that President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders could result in undocumented parents and children being targeted on school grounds.

In addition to Thursday’s resolution, the district's superintendent, Nancy Albarrán, will review any requests for access to a school site from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before any actions take place. SJUSD has previously said it will not comply with anything less than a warrant.

The district on Thursday also vowed to keep up to date with every student’s emergency contact information and provide support through local government agencies and community groups.

The initial resolution from January, titled “Inclusive Learning Environments,” ensured the safety of all students regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status. Immigration status was also included in that list, but the document did not state specific actions regarding undocumented students and the current community concerns.

“At the time, it was a little more of a general support of student safety and well-being of the district as a whole, but, given the uncertain times with the immigration policy, the community wanted to see something more focused on the immigration policy,” Allen said. “We heard loud and clear from the community that it required specific language.”

Allen noted that the district board used broader language in the first resolution because of uncertainty on what’s to come. “We don’t want to commit to something so specific when we still don’t know what policies are going to be coming out from Washington,” he said.

San Jose Unified plans to construct an additional resolution for the safety and equity of all students. This will give the community another chance to be involved in the decision-making within the next few months.

On Friday, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo also sought to reassure residents that the city’s police department will not assist any immigration enforcement efforts. Media reports have noted that ICE has been conducting immigration raids across the country, including Southern California cities such as Los Angeles and Pomona.

“All members of our San Jose community—whether they have legal status or not—must know that our San Jose Police Department will not participate in any way in any ICE investigation or enforcement,” Liccardo said. “All residents—regardless of legal status—should feel comfortable calling 911 or the San Jose Police Department without any fear of arrest or deportation, and should not be inhibited in any way from doing so if there is an emergency or a crime.”

The mayor added, “The Administration should focus federal resources on arresting and deporting violent and predatory felons, not tearing families apart over minor infractions. A blunderbuss approach to immigration enforcement merely drives fear through communities, and makes all of us less safe.”

Police spokesman Officer Albert Morales told San Jose Inside on Friday that the department is “not aware” of any planned immigration raids in San Jose.

22 Comments

  1. All of you are Criminals and your final political days are numbered. You disgraceful Mexican Politicians. Watch how Trump and the AG handles Anarchists.

    • Do you think Mexicans should live in fear I have a future ahead of my self I am not an image any but I am maxi an and I stand with all my fellow Mexicans out there. Living in fear is not an option we have to stand together and have a voice! You have a right to you opinion but chose what you say wisely

      • I think Mexicans should live in Mexico, not in fear.
        When you become an American flag waving legal citizen I will stand with you, and have a shot of tequila to celebrate!
        Do it right.

        • It’s always been a puzzle to me why Mexican chauvinists and progressive big hearts don’t complain about the evil United States stealing Mexico’s citizens away from Mexico.

          Something like twenty percent of Mexico’s workforce and ten percent of it’s population is living in the United States. Isn’t this an insult to the dignity of the Mexican nation and Mexican culture?

          Why isn’t the Mexican government standing on it’s hind legs and bellowing “RETURN OUR CITIZENS!”

          Mexican children are Mexico’s future and greedy American welfare bosses are stealing them away to be serfs on the American welfare plantation. Why is the Mexican elite allowing Mexico to be hollowed out?

          • Mexico for the most part is run by a elitist group of white or semi white Spanish and French Europeans that really don’t give a rip about the mostly Mayan, Aztec and other native tribes that once occupied central America. I really have nothing against these people as they are hardworking, religious, friendly quite conservative if you take time point out
            what we stand for and why.
            Most do come here for work and take incredible risk in coming across the border illegally, but that in itself is a crime
            and many have to carry contraband in order to pay the way here. If Americans did these things in Mexico it’s off to jail you go and out of the country if you have survived. I do not understand why someone would come here literally escaping the place they came from and not embrace the new culture that just saved them, let alone demand that country should take over here. Go back if you don’t like it here. Remember “Yankee Go Home”.

            We are a nation of immigrants, but that needs to be under control of a sovereign sane government and immigration is one of the few things I will tell you the government must be in control of.

  2. The liberal insanity continues! Criminals who are arrested and illegal need to be deported. No one wants raids on school playgrounds. Gotta love the media hype makes for good entertainment.

    • Let me think………. “For the “Race”, everything, for all others, Nothing”!…..That is the creed of La Raza. So, maybe that might have something to do with why people feel the way that they do about “La Raza”.

      If you dont think that is racist and xenophobic, you are disillusioned or just plain stupid.

  3. Actually, The Donald is only repatriating criminals at the moment, ones with felony convictions, the kind of crime considered serious enough to prevent you from ever voting if you are an American citizen, not those with ‘minor infractions.’ One of the campaign promises that he’s making good on. And it’s a good thing that these foreign criminals are running scared rather than feeling entitled to all the benefits of American citizenship. Seems likely that The Donald will catch them all in the next four years. He’s off to a good start.

  4. Liccardo sez:

    “The Administration should focus federal resources on arresting and deporting violent and predatory felons”.

    But that is EXACTLY what the Administration is doing; no more and no less. So that’s just a baseless, fabricated complaint. In other words, Liccardo is lying. Big surprise, huh?

    What is it about “illegal” that these anti-American politicians can’t understand? I don’t see any Democrat Senators or Congressmen submitting a Bill that negates the laws that these illegal aliens are breaking every day. Isn’t that what Representatives in a country based on the rule of law should do, if they don’t want to be seen as enablers of foreign scofflaws?

    They need to propose changing the LAW if they don’t like it. That’s the stand-up thing to do, isn’t it? Instead, they’re taking sides with foreign illegals—against American citizens!

    Folks, if we don’t have the rule of law, where does that end?

  5. In that case I’d like to promise to the San Jose Unified School District and our esteemed Mayor that I will not cooperate with them on the measure Y parcel tax and therefore will deduct $72 from my next property tax payment.

  6. Hey Mayor, you would spend more time, effort, and tax dollars fighting against the safety and the tights of your legal citizens than protecting them. What you and Reed did to the police department and the city are shameful. It would be better that you and your followers stepped down from public office. The Conservative Counter Culture has taken foot.

  7. Oh go ahead do your thing Sam, It will make it much easier for Trump to balance the US budget and Pay for the wall !

  8. Why won’t local media take their job seriously?

    Murky Gnus/METRO: Ask Slick Sammy why he hasn’t accomplished a single campaign promise?

    As I recall during the election, this publication (all them really) gushed about how his book laid out a great plan… how his support of Measure B was commendable, how he would do great things.

    After the election he flip-flopped on Measure B, went back on his promises about marijuana regulation and vetting Uber/Lyft drivers and despite all his talk about fiscal responsibility, his time as a council member and mayor has been spent building housing- which decreases revenue. More blight, bums, vice crimes and drugs than ever before… and fewer police officers.

    Saratoga Sam is a sham.

    Voters in San Jose would overwhelming strike down a resolution making our community a “sanctuary city” in order to keep Federal funding, yet this tool makes it his focus because it gets him attention.

    Pandering to the media, who in turn lap it… just a vicious news cycle that misinforms the readership.

  9. The Mayor, any City Councilperson, The School Board, and all of the City’s and Schools District Employee’s should be prosecuted to the fullest extent if they break the law, and ignorance of the law is no excuse. I for one am tired of there being Laws that the little guy must follow which don’t seem to apply to anyone with even the slightest position of authority in government. As someone stated above, we either have laws that apply to everyone or we don’t have law.

  10. > I for one am tired of there being Laws that the little guy must follow which don’t seem to apply to anyone with even the slightest position of authority in government. As someone stated above, we either have laws that apply to everyone or we don’t have law.

    And excellent assessment, Mr. WORK90.

    Very likely, the majority of people living between Highway 101 and the Pacific coast disagree with you.

    But the MAJORITY OF AMERICANS living between Highway 101 and the Atlantic coast share your sentiment.

    • Wow this means the IA’s. will be headed for San Jose looking for protection from Stinky Sam and Fast Eddy and the city’s legal team. I think it’s time we start deporting our politician and the leftwing band of monkeys that work for them!

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