As students return to classrooms, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainments continue across Connecticut. Despite fears, one of the most diverse districts is telling parents to send their kids to school — because it might be the safest place.
New Haven Superintendent Madeline Negrón was one of many gathered outside of Wilbur Cross High School on the second day of classes. Students, teachers and community members were celebrating a win: Esdrás Zabaleta-Ramirez, a junior at the school, was about to be released from ICE custody after several weeks.
“I know what this is about, and I'm going to say it: This is about continuing to oppress marginalized communities,” Negrón told the crowd. “Someone like me, who has risen from poverty, we do that through getting access to public education. That's how we rise out of poverty.”
Negrón is an immigrant of sorts herself. She came to Connecticut from Puerto Rico at 10 years old, not speaking a word of English. Now, as the district’s first Latina leader, Negrón is promising immigrant parents that the system will protect their kids.
“Here, we will protect them,” she then said in Spanish. “Here, we will welcome each of your children because here is where they need to be. So, please, send your kids every day.”
The district released guidance back in January for its educators — first training administrators and then moving to teachers and other school employees. It’s based on two requirements for ICE to enter a school: First, permission. Second, an authorized judicial warrant.
“I am not granting my consent for them to come into our schools,” Negrón said.
New Haven’s protocol requires any interaction with ICE be handled by the school’s principal, who is to collect all relevant documentation to send to the city’s legal team for review before immigration officials would be allowed to enter the building.
“Because at the end of the day, administrators didn't go to law school,” she said. “They don't know how to determine whether a document indeed is a judicial warrant or not.”
So while the city’s legal team is looking things over, ICE will be asked to wait outside.
“They're just going to have to wait patiently, right?” Negrón said.
Ultimately, New Haven Public Schools will follow the law, but they will not make access to students easy.
Esdrás Zabaleta-Ramirez, the Wilbur Cross student, was detained by ICE at his car wash job over the summer break, so it didn’t involve the school system — though many of its employees came out to rallies for his return. The high schooler came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor during the Biden administration, which put him in a unique legal situation. His immigration attorney told Connecticut Public that Zabaleta-Ramirez wants to come back to class.
The superintendent says she doesn’t have the number of students who are in similar shoes within the district. But in some ways, it doesn’t matter:
“Everyone is welcome, no questions asked,” she said. “We are going to serve every child that walks through our doors. And I think in this day and age, it’s even better for us to be in that space.”
Negrón said school officials are not asking for students’ immigration status, but instead focusing on needs like housing and food security.
The latter is another Trump administration hurdle for New Haven schools this academic year. The district was able to provide all students breakfast and lunch at no charge given the area’s poverty level. But with $23 million in cuts from the Big Beautiful Bill, she worries the future of free meals is at risk.
But Negrón is determined to find a way to support her students.
“We are going to continue to do this work, doing it grounded in our core values,” Negrón said. “Our core values of inclusivity and respect for human beings is not going to change just because there's somebody else at the White House.”
