At least 23 states considered laws governing ICE and schools this year

Andrea Garza says it's not unusual or alarming when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are spotted near a school in Laredo, Texas, a border town.

In other parts of the country, "seeing the presence of border patrol would be, you know, different, maybe shocking. Just something from another world, right?" she said. "It's something very normal here."

Garza is a school leader with the United Independent School District , which serves Laredo. Federal data shows 94% of her district's community is Hispanic. Garza said some families have been in Laredo for generations, while others came more recently, and the federal government is one of her area's largest employers.

She said she knows what she would do if ICE comes knocking: If they don't have a warrant or subpoena, they don't get in.

"We serve 'in loco parentis' for students," she said, meaning "in place of a parent" when the students' rights are challenged.

"It's not interpreted, in the way we see it, as interfering with the law," Garza explained. "It is more just verifying that we are all following the law."

Texas state law prohibits local entities, including campus police, from obstructing federal immigration enforcement. But NPR found no state laws that directly address how much access these officers should have in K-12 public schools.

And it's not just Texas. Many states lack clear policies governing what these interactions should look like. Recent federal changes haven't helped.

At the beginning of President Trump's second term, the administration rescinded a policy that protected schools, among other "sensitive" places, from immigration enforcement.

"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said at the time. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."

In some places, school leaders and researchers say Trump's immigration policies have led to enrollment drops.

DHS, which houses ICE, has said that ICE does not raid or target schools.

But reporting from K-12 Dive shows the last academic year still saw several incidents of ICE agents on school grounds. When that happens, education leaders often rely on a patchwork of state and district policies to know what to do.

This year, many state legislatures tried to update those policies.

An NPR analysis found that, so far this year, at least 23 states have considered new legislative proposals — in some cases multiple proposals — governing federal immigration officers and K-12 public schools.

The vast majority of the state proposals NPR reviewed — 35 out of 40 — sought to limit federal officers' access to K-12 campuses and students; only one proposal — in Mississippi — sought to ensure that schools cooperate with ICE. The rest didn't explicitly limit or increase access or cooperation.

Thomas Saenz is president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, an organization that advocates for Latinos living in the U.S. He said the elimination of the federal sensitive locations policy is likely driving many states to establish their own protections, "belts and suspenders, as they say."

But while lawmakers seem to agree there's a need for clearer policies, in many places, they've struggled to find consensus over what those policies should be. Of the 40 proposals NPR reviewed, only 11 became laws by the beginning of this school year.

From requiring a warrant to requiring cooperation

Minnesota, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Maine and Nebraska are among the state legislatures that considered restricting ICE access to schools.

Several of these proposals specified the need for a warrant. Others aimed to restrict what school police and school resource officers, or SROs, can and can't do, including when it comes to immigration-related arrests.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mississippi considered and passed a law requiring government entities, including school districts, to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

And a few states considered requiring school boards to adopt policies outlining how they would respond to immigration authorities on school property.

At least eight states already had laws governing immigration enforcement and K-12 schools at the start of 2026. A few of those states — including Connecticut, Maryland and Oregon — considered additional legislation this year.

Recent state proposals have also aimed to allow public schools to charge tuition for students who aren't U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Such proposals would challenge the decades-old landmark Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe, which established that all children, regardless of immigration status, have the right to a free K-12 public education.

NPR did not include these proposals in its analysis. According to reporting from Education Week, as of July, at least two states were considering proposals challenging Plyler. Similar efforts failed in at least five other states.

Proposals target sensitive locations and student enrollment

Following the Trump administration's decision to rescind the policy protecting "sensitive" places, some states have been trying to set their own rules around where immigration enforcement can and can't go.

A few states — including West Virginia, Hawaii and Kansas — made a push this year to restrict ICE access by designating school campuses as sensitive locations. None of those three states' proposals passed.

Some states already have laws that explicitly ban or restrict these types of sanctuary policies. That didn't stop Missouri from considering a proposal this spring to limit school cooperation with immigration enforcement. An existing state law prohibiting municipalities from adopting sanctuary policies and requiring cooperation calls into question how far such a proposal could go.

Lawmakers in Tennessee considered multiple proposals this year from across the political spectrum, including one to track K-12 students' legal status, which opponents argued was part of an effort to challenge Plyler, and another that would require schools to immediately notify all students, parents and employees if immigration officers were on school grounds.

"As legislators, we cannot make informed decisions without data, and right now we simply do not know what the attendance is in our school systems across the state, regarding children who are here illegally," Tennessee Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) said in a March hearing, where he spoke in favor of the measure that would have required schools to report students who are undocumented.

The bill did not make it to a final vote.

Meanwhile, another Tennessee proposal this year would have prohibited certain sensitive areas, including schools, from being used as staging areas, processing locations or operational bases for immigration enforcement.

"Everybody deserves to have a great learning environment, and it's hard to teach when you are worried that one of your students is going to be taken," Tennessee Rep. Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis), who sponsored that bill, told NPR. The proposal ultimately failed.

Minnesota principals await legislation

NPR was not able to find a pre-existing state law in Minnesota. But after the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year, lawmakers considered at least five different proposals around ICE and schools.

They ranged from stricter warrant requirements to mandating that schools develop procedures for handling requests from law enforcement. None of the five proposals made it to a final vote.

That means school leaders like Principal Kenny Newby are left waiting.

Newby leads Justice Alan Page Elementary School in Maplewood, Minn., just outside the Twin Cities. He said if ICE ever comes to his school, his goal is to be kind, stay calm and be firm.

In the absence of state laws, he said he has his own district's policies to lean on: Staff members are supposed to welcome the ICE officers, start a conversation, ask for required paperwork and notify school-level administrators. Those administrators then reach out to district leaders.

If the officers have a warrant, they would be directed to the district office for next steps. Newby stressed: "We would not allow them to have direct contact with students."

Rob Reetz is the principal of Mounds View High School in nearby Arden Hills. He said it would be helpful to have a state law governing how schools are supposed to interact with federal immigration officers; if nothing else, a law like that could simplify interactions between districts.

Right now, Reetz said, if a sports team from his school travels to play against a team from another district and ICE shows up at the game, it's unclear which district's protocols adults should follow.

Still, if ICE does come knocking at his school, Reetz worries they won't necessarily follow rules set by the state or any other entity.

He said he remembers learning in January that federal agents had been spotted at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. At the time, MPR News reported that armed U.S. Border Patrol officers came onto school property during dismissal and "began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders."

"It contributed to this uncertainty about how would our interactions go with immigration enforcement if they were to be on our campus," Reetz said.

Newby echoed these concerns. He said he and his staff would feel more supported if there were "clear expectations on keeping schools a safe place."

Edited by: Nicole CohenAudio produced by: Lauren MigakiResearch by: Natalie Pate, Nicole Cohen, Sarah Knight and Barclay Walsh

NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews. Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.