After Homeland Security ‘welfare check,’ Idaho school district says immigration requests will draw new scrutiny

A Southwest Idaho school district says its school resource officers can no longer share student information with federal immigration authorities without approval from district officials, after an officer confirmed details about unaccompanied migrant students to the Department of Homeland Security.

A school resource officer for the Vallivue School District confirmed names, addresses, enrollment information, parent phone numbers and attendance records for several unaccompanied migrant students in response to email inquiries in March and April from DHS agents who said they were checking on the "welfare" of the students. A school security officer in a neighboring district, meanwhile, flagged the request for the Caldwell School District superintendent out of concern the district might “end up in an immigration operation.” 

For nearly a month, Vallivue School District officials and school board members did not respond to interview requests or specific questions sent by email about the school resource officer’s response to the DHS outreach. But after InvestigateWest published a story earlier this month, Vallivue School District Assistant Superintendent Joey Palmer said the district changed its policy to require officers to run any inquiries from federal immigration authorities past district administrators. 

Administrators would then determine whether the information can be disclosed, but Palmer said the district won’t share information if it contributes to an immigration enforcement action.

“We reviewed the policy, and we also said that if there's any outside agency that's reaching out for information on students, even if it's on the up and up, run it by district administration first,” Palmer said in an Aug. 14 interview. “So that way we can give the green light, or say, ‘Time out, we don't necessarily want to give this information.’”

Palmer said immigration agents have not reached out to the school district since April and that if agents show up to any schools looking for students without a warrant, they will not grant access. When asked for a copy of the policy, Palmer said the change isn’t explicitly written into formal district policies.

Homeland Security’s ‘welfare’ check on Idaho migrant students raises school privacy questions

In other parts of the country, the welfare checks have resulted in children being taken out of their homes and put back into government custody

InvestigateWestRachel Spacek

DHS Special Agent Chip Slingerland emailed Caldwell Police Department Cpl. Patrick Lewis, asking him to confirm information about several “unaccompanied minors,” or children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian. Lewis, who works for the police department, is assigned to four Vallivue campuses. 

“We are trying to verify they have access to food, water, bathroom, and safe living conditions, in addition to being enrolled and attending school,” Slingerland wrote. 

Around the same time, federal immigration agents had gone to schools in cities like Los Angeles and Houston to try to interview unaccompanied minors as part of similar “wellness checks.”

Reporting by CNN and the New York Times has found that the DHS welfare checks have resulted in unaccompanied migrant children being taken out of their homes and put back into government custody and sometimes the detention and deportation of their family members or sponsors, who are often undocumented. 

The Trump administration has defended the checks as an effort to protect migrant children from exploitation and sex-trafficking. 

At the Caldwell School District, which also received Slingerland’s email, the district has said it will not disclose student information to federal immigration authorities without a warrant or subpoena. 

Palmer said that Lewis, the school resource officer, acted “in good faith” with the information provided to him by DHS. Lewis shared only “directory information” that is legal to disclose under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, a federal law that protects student information, he added.

“The way they framed it in the email reaching out to him was along the lines of asking if just basic needs were being met,” Palmer said. “And so he was just acting in good faith to make sure that these children are untethered and not having their needs met. He was just trying to do right by that.”

The Vallivue School District, where 41% of students are Latino, employs school resource officers from the Caldwell and Nampa police departments and the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office. Palmer said the district held a meeting after the incident with all three law enforcement agencies and the school resource officers they employ, including Lewis.

Both Palmer and Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram said Lewis did nothing wrong, but that he could have asked more questions. 

Palmer said school resource officers are used to sharing basic information about students to local child welfare agencies or police departments to check on the well-being of a student, such as if there is a concern for their personal safety. 

“So I think he was just doing an action that's par for the course, and maybe just didn't connect the dots with the politically charged environment that we're in right now. And pause to think, ‘Should I do this? Should I check with someone or not?’” Palmer said. “And then it really kind of gave us an opportunity to pause as a district and kind of reassess how we'd expect things to go on moving forward.” 

The DHS agents’ emails to the Vallivue and Caldwell School Districts was the first time both districts and the Caldwell Police Department had heard about the agency checking on unaccompanied migrant students. 

“Could we have done things differently? Maybe,” Ingram, the Caldwell police chief, said in an interview with InvestigateWest. “But did he do anything wrong or violate any policies or state law or federal law? No, and when you're acting in good faith and you're trying to protect the interests of children, you do it. We’ve never crossed this bridge before. There's no textbook on this.”

Ingram said the Caldwell Police Department will not assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with any sort of immigration enforcement action, such as workplace raids or arrests.

“For me as the chief, I really support our community and migrant workers, and I’ve flat out told the media we are not going to assist ICE with any sort of raids or any sort of enforcement action,” Ingram said. 

He has also implemented a department-wide policy requiring a school resource officer to notify him if any immigration agents reach out for student information.