{"id":290131,"date":"2017-02-16T10:39:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T17:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=290131"},"modified":"2017-02-16T10:43:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T17:43:56","slug":"feds-didnt-make-arrests-at-dona-ana-county-schools-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/02\/feds-didnt-make-arrests-at-dona-ana-county-schools-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds didn&#8217;t make arrests at Do\u00f1a Ana County schools, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rumors spread Wednesday that federal agents were at schools\u00a0in Do\u00f1a Ana County arresting immigrants living in the United States without legal status, but officials say that didn&#8217;t happen.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_290162\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-290162\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Mesquite-BP-336x227.jpg\" alt=\"Border Patrol\" width=\"336\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Mesquite-BP-336x227.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Mesquite-BP.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">This photo circulated Wednesday showing a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle parked at Mesquite Elementary School. An agent was there for a school event, not to enforce immigration law, a school district official says.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/02\/protesters-shut-down-street-after-ice-raid-in-las-cruces\/\" target=\"_blank\">a raid at various locations in Las Cruces<\/a>, a photo circulated of a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle at Mesquite Elementary School in Southern Do\u00f1a Ana County.<\/p>\n<p>That sparked concerns among immigrant advocates that federal agents might be breaking with a policy that states they should\u00a0generally not enforce immigration law at\u00a0&#8220;sensitive places&#8221; such as schools and churches. But a school district spokesman\u00a0says the Border Patrol agent was at Mesquite Elementary for a partners-in-education event, not to enforce immigration law.<\/p>\n<p>Rumors spread rapidly among immigrant communities, which often rely on word-of-mouth communication. Many people are on edge because of President Donald Trump&#8217;s rhetoric and threats of mass deportations. And in at least once recent incident <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/shows\/wbez-news\/amid-deportation-push-suburban-church-grapples-with-loss\/3d269fc3-04e7-4604-bae4-a376a37410c9\" target=\"_blank\">at a church in Illinois<\/a>, agents made an arrest in spite of the policy.<\/p>\n<p>That sensitive places\u00a0memo was issued\u00a0in 2011 while Barack Obama was U.S. President. Now that Trump is president, the policy officially remains in place for now (at least on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/doclib\/ero-outreach\/pdf\/10029.2-policy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">ICE<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/border-security\/sensitive-locations-faqs\" target=\"_blank\">Border Patrol<\/a>\u00a0websites).<\/p>\n<p>ICE has been tight-lipped about Wednesday&#8217;s raid in Las Cruces and says enforcement actions it is conducting are <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/02\/are-this-weeks-ice-raids-routine-or-a-trump-driven-escalation\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;routine.&#8221;<\/a> A Border Patrol spokesman\u00a0told NMPolitics.net last week there had been no changes in how it enforces the law since Trump became president.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And officials with school districts said federal agents haven&#8217;t targeted schools here.\u00a0The Border Patrol agent was at Mesquite Elementary on Wednesday &#8212; the same day ICE was conducting its raid in Las Cruces &#8212; at the invitation of the school&#8217;s counselor, according to\u00a0Luis Villalobos, spokesman for the Gadsden Independent School District. Border Patrol agents, he said, &#8220;frequently go to schools and read and do more engagement with students.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are a fantastic partner in education throughout the district,&#8221; Villalobos said. &#8220;The action that they have on our school property is supportive of our students in the schools. They weren&#8217;t using that opportunity for anything else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Jo Galv\u00e1n, spokeswoman for the Las Cruces Public Schools, said there had been no reported incidents of federal agents watching or making arrests at any schools in that district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rumors spread Wednesday that federal agents were at schools in Do\u00f1a Ana County arresting immigrants living in the United States without legal status, but officials say that didn&#8217;t happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234,3307,125,116],"class_list":["post-290131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children","tag-donald-trump","tag-education","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}