This week, we’re taking you inside a school district fighting back against deportations and the culture of fear brought on by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

What you need to know

When immigration officers began arresting parents and children in New Haven, Connecticut, some students stopped showing up to class. 

The school district has a process in place involving legal counsel and warrant verification before immigration enforcement agents who show up to a school are allowed inside. When a high school student was detained last summer, advocacy groups, his attorney, the teachers union, government officials and school employees pushed for his release. After being shuffled to detention centers across the country for more than a month, he was allowed to return to his community.

Easing this culture of fear is hard when immigration officers roam the community and families are detained on their way to school in the morning. 

“You’re sitting next to them,” said Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of the grassroots group Connecticut Students for a Dream, of the high schoolers she works with. “And they’re literally shaking.”