PROVINCETOWN — In response to the Trump administration’s decision on Jan. 21 to lift restrictions barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from making arrests in “sensitive locations” including schools, churches, and health clinics, schools across the Outer Cape moved to reassure students and parents about their privacy and safety policies.
Following guidance from Mass. Attorney General Andrea Campbell to school leaders on Jan. 24, the superintendents of the Provincetown, Truro, and Nauset Regional school districts all sent similar letters to parents.
Families needed to know what he would do to protect their children, said Provincetown Schools Supt. Gerry Goyette, adding that he tried to put himself in parents’ shoes.
“If I were a parent and a migrant and didn’t have papers, and I dropped my kids off at school, what would I do?” said Goyette. “What would I want Gerry to do?”
The letter that Goyette issued on Jan. 27 outlined the schools’ policies if ICE agents were to come looking for students. Staff must notify him and the student’s parent or guardian immediately to allow time to consult the district’s legal counsel. ICE agents must have a criminal warrant signed by a state or federal judge to have contact with students, the letter says.
The letter also describes the school’s obligations under the Family Education and Privacy Rights Act of 1974, which prohibits sharing student information with any third party, including ICE, without parental consent.
The letters from Truro Central School and the Nauset Regional School District were similar. They all affirmed the districts’ commitment to a “welcoming and inclusive environment for all students and families,” echoing the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which guarantees a child’s right to public education regardless of immigration status.
“The intent of the letter was to alleviate any fears from families who were concerned about immigration officials coming into the schools and taking kids,” said Truro School Supt. Stephanie Costigan, who sent her letter out on Jan. 29.
“There was a lot of angst,” added Goyette. “The chatter among some of the superintendents was not only are parents nervous, they’re keeping their kids at home.”
Ensuring Student Safety
Provincetown and Truro schools already had transportation policies in place meant to ensure that students are not left unattended. Bus drivers have emergency contact information for each student and are instructed to bring them back to school if no one can meet them at their stop. From there, school staff are instructed to locate a trusted adult.
“That’s just normal operating procedure,” said Goyette. “We don’t drop kids off to an empty bus stop.”
Goyette, Costigan, and Nauset Schools Supt. Brooke Clenchy urged families to update emergency contact information and designate alternative caretakers. Their letters also referred to Attorney General Campbell’s emergency planning guide for families, which is published online in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Haitian Creole and which outlines legal options for child custody in the event of a parent’s detention or deportation.
Ken Amoriggi, legal director of the immigration department at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fall River, told the Independent that proactive planning is essential, including power-of-attorney arrangements. It’s also important for children to have passports in case they need to travel outside the country to reunite with family members.
“These are steps that families should be taking now to alleviate some of the real and tragic consequences of detentions and deportations,” said Amoriggi.
Counselors and other school staff are also alert to the new pressure on families, Goyette said. Schools do not track students’ immigration status or that of their families, he said, but the Outer Cape is an immigrant-dependent community.
“We’re a country of migrants,” said Goyette. “In my lifetime, I never thought I’d have to deal with this. But here we are.”
Businesses on Alert
School administrators and parents are not the only ones trying to learn more about immigration law and make plans. On Feb. 4, the Provincetown Business Guild held an information session for business owners led by attorney and former board of health chair Steve Katsurinis, with Assistant Town Manager Dan Riviello and Deputy Police Chief Greg Hennick also on hand to answer questions.
“We wanted to educate people in neutral terms about the law currently,” said Katsurinis. “It was focused on why ICE might come to your business, what authority they have on your property, and what rights and responsibilities you have as a business owner.”
Katsurinis said the Fourth Amendment guarantees protection from unlawful search and seizure for all people in the U.S. regardless of citizenship. He also described the distinction between public and private spaces within a business.
“If the space is one where the public goes, then it’s public,” said Katsurinis, while “if it’s a space where the public is excluded regularly, then it’s private.”
A restaurant’s dining room is a public accommodation, for example, but its kitchen and offices are not.
“People just want to be informed,” said PBG Executive Director Rachael Brister. “Their level of concern brought them to this meeting.”
“We talked about the current state of the law,” Katsurinis said. “If things change — either in the law or in the way the executive branch is interpreting the law — then we probably need to come back and reconvene.”
Amoriggi, who said he tracks executive actions and state and federal ordinances daily, also said that staying informed is key.
“Some of the threats are more perceived than real,” he said. “We haven’t seen any evidence yet of mass raids in churches, for example.”
There will also be continuing judicial review, including “court decisions from as high up as the Supreme Court,” Amoriggi said.
Executive orders are not actual laws, he added. “Presumably, or hopefully, there are going to be actual laws passed that will tailor how the rest of this goes.”
