Melissa Brennan is co-legal director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.
On a recent sunny morning in Portland, Maine, elementary school students were arriving at Talbot Community School when something unthinkable happened. An unidentified law enforcement agent, later confirmed to be working on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arrested a parent who had just dropped off their child.
The arrest took place on the access road connecting Talbot to Forest Avenue — essentially, the school’s driveway — in full view of children, parents and school staff. The arrest shattered more than just a morning routine. It shattered the sense of safety that Portland Public Schools’ educators and staff work tirelessly to create and protect.
Fear spread quickly. Parents were left with an impossible choice: protect their families or educate their children. The following day, an unknown number of immigrant families kept their children home, afraid that simply walking their child to school could lead to detention or deportation. Students missed school, missed meals and missed the stability and care that a classroom provides.
In January of this year, one of President Trump’s first acts upon returning to office was to rescind the long-standing policy that protected “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals and places of worship from ICE enforcement.
For decades, through Republican and Democratic administrations, some version of this nonenforcement policy has been in place. Now, federal agents have free rein to make arrests in places where people are most vulnerable and where trust is essential.
Recently, two of the country’s largest teachers’ unions joined a lawsuit challenging this policy change. In the meantime, schools across the country, including Portland Public Schools, have spent time and resources developing policies to prepare for the possibility of a raid by federal immigration officials — resources that could otherwise be used to enhance student learning and growth.
Children across Portland now worry that school drop-off could be the last time they see their parent. In classrooms, that anxiety makes it harder to focus on math, reading or writing. Outside of school, parents afraid of arrest may avoid parent-teacher conferences, after-school pickups or even enrollment. The harm is not abstract — it’s real and deeply personal.
This arrest may be the first of its kind in Maine, but it won’t be the last. With the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive expansion of immigration enforcement is already underway. Without firm protections for schools, we can expect to see more incidents like this in Maine and across the country. Without immediate action from Congress, what happened at Talbot could become the new normal.
As a Portland Public Schools parent, I’m deeply concerned about the trauma that current federal policy inflicts on children, families and educators. There is no reason that this ICE arrest needed to happen in the Talbot School driveway. It did not make our communities safer. It makes them weaker, more divided and more afraid.
As the school year starts up, kids should be faced with the nervous anticipation of getting to know new classrooms and teachers, not the fear of whether they can even make it to class or if their parents will be there when they get home. This is not just an immigration issue. It’s a moral one that should concern everyone, regardless of politics.
Our schools must be safe for every child, every parent, every day. ICE has no place there.