Students are Feeling a Chill

On February 4th around third period, an Instagram post created by a student at Lahaina Intermediate spread through our school: “ICE immigration is at lis today and are supposed to come up here to lhs tomorrow. don't get deported” (sic). The caption appeared on top of an unrelated image: a glass cylinder sliding away from a student’s hand across a counter in a science class.

The message was quickly dismissed by some as entirely fabricated. Yet, many were concerned and still are.

“I heard a rumor about ICE going to lis but I don’t know if it was actually tea or not” said a sophomore who chose to remain anonymous. They will be referred to Anna below.

“The scary thing,” Anna said, “is that it’s easy to believe something like that can actually happen because it is something that is happening on the mainland. I think we’re lucky to live in Hawaii where we aren’t as affected but I definitely worry about my friends and family on the mainland.”

Recent events suggest that these worries might come closer to home than Anna and others may think.

In March, an elementary student was removed from Konawaena Elementary in an immigration operation.

The boy's father was detained due to immigration violations. With no one to pick him up, officers delivered him to his father. To concerns in the community, Lucia Cabral-DeArmas was sure to mention that “the two were never separated, other than during school hours.”

Principal Richard Carosso sent an email around this time containing state guidelines for responding to ICE on campus: politely inform them that they are not allowed access to any information or room and call and wait for an administrator to handle the situation.

What is ICE?

According to the US Immigration and Customs Website (ICE), the agency’s mission is “To Protect America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.” Students and teachers shared different impressions, however.

History teacher Ruth Mathis described ICE simply, as “an immigration system that gets people without their own proper documentation, and they send them back home.”

“It’s a federal agency that investigates people if they are here in the country illegally,” said Junior Aleksandr Lucas. “Search their background and identify them. Eventually arrest them, interview and most likely deport them.”

“It’s a government group coming and taking illegal American citizens of this country,” said Koryn Moury.

“Their job is to find some illegal immigrants,” offered Science teacher Jacquelyn Ellis. ICE will “detain them or find out any more information about them and then they help with the deportation part of it as well.”

A bit different, math teacher William Tatro thinks ICE’s primary focus is on “people who are convicted or charged with severe criminal activities.”

“It's a private space”

Talk about immigration on campus comes after Donald Trump’s recent executive order allowing immigration officers to conduct enforcement actions in or near sensitive areas such as medical facilities, places of worship, and schools. Following these announcements, Maui teachers looked for guidance on what should be done if ICE agents come to campus.

The Hawai’i Teachers Association (HSTA) coordinated an information session with the Maui immigrant advocacy group, Roots Reborn, at Kulanihako’i High School in February.

Leading the session was Aparna Patrie, an immigration attorney on Maui who works closely with the organization.

“These are folks who are really important and essential to the fabric of our community,” said Patrie, who understands that a large percentage of Maui is foreign born. “They are terrified, and we've seen folks be afraid to get health care, afraid to go to school, afraid to go to church, afraid to go to the store and it's really unfortunate.”

Ellis was one of several teachers who attended the information session. Afterward, she said that it was “useful” and that “it just helps you know what your rights are, because even immigrants who are here, not legally, have rights through our constitution and that's an important part of our nation.”

Reflecting on what she had learned, Ellis described what she would do it ICE came to her classroom. “I would tell them that it's a private space. They cannot come in here and they need to go to the front office with any of their questions. I would never tell them a single thing about a single student in my classroom”

Carol Holland, a History teacher at Maui High, also attended the info session. According to Holland, she would go to extreme measures to protect her students such as locking them in the bathroom to protect them.

“The bathroom is a private space,” said Holland. “They cannot get into it without permission, so I will squeeze them all in there in my personal teacher bathroom, lock the door, slide the key under the door so it's inside the bathroom, so there's no way they can get in there.”

“I would just wanna see their papers [warrants] and examine it,” said History teacher Ruth Mathis at the session. “People need to be educated in here, and you can’t come to my room. You can't take a child out of this room.”

On the possibility of ICE agents on campus, Tatro, who was not present at the info session, “would have to ask them ‘did you go to the administration first?” However, he added that there are situations in which you might want ICE agents in your room.

Tatro painted a scene in which there is somebody “holding somebody hostage or somebody’s in here with a gun, threatening us. I’d want them to come in.” Yet, he circled back, noting that “if somebody comes in and it's not that threatening a situation, I would say ‘did you go to the administration first?’” He insisted that, minus the hostage scenario, he would “be a little bit uncomfortable with that particular circumstance.”

“I Know My Rights”

In a hypothetical situation if ICE were to arrive on campus, Principal Carosso said, he would “not give full and unfettered access to our campus.” Instead, in accordance with state policy, he would hold them at the admin building and “call our superiors, our complex superintendent.”

It is likely that the majority of students on campus, like Moury, “wouldn't know what to do.”

Junior Angel Sana says that she has “only heard of ICE through online. I have never seen them in real life, which I would be afraid to.”

“I wouldn't say anything,” said junior Val Medina-Tellez. “As somebody whose parents immigrated here, there would be no point in saying anything. They would automatically assume you are illegal, [and say] ‘I'm gonna detain you.’ They wouldn’t actually care.”

Some students were more assertive. “I know my rights, I would only say what is needed to say and stay silent,” said junior Aleksandr Lucas. “I would never help an agency that does horrible stuff to innocent individuals that only try to make their own lives and their children's lives better.”

“For some reason citizenship doesn't mean anything to them.” said freshman Mele Faleta. “There are many requirements that have to go with living in the US” yet “people still don’t think that it's enough for people to stay here, then i think maybe just get something else to worry about.”

Dezmond Jace “Dezzy” Longgay, a senior, said “I'd actually lowkey be afraid.” The reason he’s afraid is “because of the fact that even though I am a United States born citizen, because of my race, I will be deported back to the Philippines.”

Longgay believes the possibilities of ICE coming to camps are high because “Hawai’i is one of the well-known diverse states in the U.S., other than like California.” Since we're all isolated on one small island Longgay thinks “they might see it as an advantage to find people.”

“They're clearly not looking for criminals”

Tatro believes that there are people who come to “destroy” the country he loves. He mentioned how in the last four years crime rates and violence have risen because of illegal immigrants.

“I'm talking about the violent illegal immigrants,” he said. “I’m talking about the ones that have a history of crime.”

Offering an example, he encouraged me to imagine “a group of individuals from a country that is in conflict with us, and you see single men 26 years old with their backpack and their jeans and their sneakers, their $200 sneakers. You wonder what they're coming here for–especially when you see many who look like this, no family, just themselves. Charged with various heinous crimes, you know what they're coming for?” He answered his own question: “they're coming here to bring destruction and chaos to our country.”

“ICE in the past, or at least the last administration was supposed to be just targeting the top people with any criminal records, right?” said Ellis. “If Donald Trump is letting them come to schools, they're clearly not looking for criminals. They're looking for any and everyone.”

Holland (who said that she would lock her students in the bathroom), agrees. I sat with her in a nearly empty Kulanihako’i cafeteria as teachers had begun to leave, most of their questions answered and some of their anxiety eased.

Soft spoken, yet bold and confident with her words, Holland talked about this common connection between crime and immigration. “Less than one percent of the crime in this country is committed by immigrants” she insisted. “So the statistics and the facts don't back up that.” referring to others opinions on immigrant crime rates.

According to a 2024 report on crime rates in Texas, a border state, the National Institute of Justice found that immigrants did in fact have a lower crime rate than citizens.

Using FBI data, the American Immigration Council also notes that the idea that immigrants bring crime to America is a myth. 

The results from the population data in relation to crime rates showed “no statistically significant correlation between the immigrant share of the population and the total crime rate in any state.” They conclude that: “higher immigrant population shares are not associated with higher crime rates”

Sana sees some of this and thinks that ICE is “sending people home where they are from because of their colors or race.” Yet, she still thinks that “some immigrants did come here without papers and still yet committed crimes, including rape, murder, theft, and other crimes. I would be very much happy if they sent those people who committed crimes.”

Sana added, however, that, “for others who came here with papers and have the right of residency, and yet still getting sent home is far too much.”

“I think that it is being used to push certain agendas and deporting people like Kilmar Garcia who have little to no criminal record,” said Anna.  “To me it shows that the government doesn’t need a reason to take someone you love who might not be a white person and send them to a federal prison in a whole other country.”

Lucas thinks ICE “has really turned into a whole racist organization,“adding that it’s “despicable and shameful to the country.”

Ellis thinks that ICE “should never be a worry for these kids who are at school to learn. It should be a safe space.”

“I feel like ICE shouldn't even exist,” said Holland. “The whole principle of the country of America is built by immigrants, so the fact that a bunch of xenophobic old men are trying to hold onto their privilege by implementing immigration policies is an affront to everything this country stands for.”

Mathis offered similar sentiments. “It's always been discriminatory from the beginning,” she noted. “[N]ow the situation has changed in the country where the minority groups–they come together to become the majority, and the people who are the majority now they become the minority. It's the fear, the fear that all these people would come together and maybe they will take over.” 

Angel Sana is a junior who thinks the situation is “messed up.” For Angel, ICE is just a group trying “to take advantage of humans that are not Americans.” They “do whatever they want,” Sana continued, “but they do it in their own way. They don’t follow the rules.”

“Honestly because they put a bunch of racist, bigoted people in charge and we’re just seeing the effects of our country’s ignorance,” said Anna.

“It’s important to understand the impact that they have on our communities and the actual threat that they pose,” she said. “I have friends and even family members who are immigrants who are worried about this kind of thing and it’s horrible to see.”

“I think everybody wants it good for the country”

“I think everybody wants it good for the country, so nobody is gonna take over, so let it be cool on immigration and encourage ingenuity of the immigrants," said Mathis, who offered a history of immigration in America that  “dates back to the coming of the settlers. Everyone that came from Europe, especially the United Kingdom, were immigrants.”

“Immigration is very important. We have to support it and not discourage it. Because that's how we got all these brains that we have, all the inventions, everything. It's immigrants' knowledge that built this country and you can't do away with immigration.”

Mathis went on: “These children, one of these children, they could help you tomorrow. That's the blessing of immigration. We all have different skills. So no ICE person can come to my door and take anybody.”

Holland hoped that our generation “would live in a world where you didn't have to fight these struggles anymore.” She said “you guys are gonna have to stand up. You're gonna have to resist, you're gonna have to push back against tyranny, against authoritarianism. Against the rise of fascism again.”

“It's time for people to stop being ignorant about important issues like these,” said Lucas.

If you are feeling distressed about current events, the Ka Lama staff recommends you seek out your grade level counselor.