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GUEST: Amanda Martinez, Pete Micek, New American Media

Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents caused panic in the communities of Oakland and Berkeley last week by stationing vans near various schools while conducting raids. As ICE conducted surveillance in multiple East Bay School Districts, parents and family members alerted their children in school about the agency’s close proximity. Students and families alike feared that the agency would soon be targeting classrooms. ICE reportedly apprehended four family members from a home in South Berkeley and a woman in Oakland but did not set foot on any school grounds. That fact did not stop the panic that ensued from the agency’s presence and underscores the level of fear the raids have brought to Latino communities. In Berkeley, the superintendent of the city’s Unified School District issued a bilingual phone message reassuring worried parents that he would not allow children to be taken away by ICE from his schools. Not knowing if a raid was impending or not, staff persons and teachers kept some students in class while arranging rides home so as to protect their families from any potential danger. The day after the May 6th raids, two dozen students from Berkeley High School protested the raids donning brown armbands in a display of solidarity.