Detaining a parent taking their kid to school is wrong. Leaders should say so | Opinion
Immigration officials detained a man in east Charlotte as he was taking his son to school Monday morning. The principal of Charlotte East Language Academy confirmed in a message to families that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was present near the school’s drop-off line, and witnesses reported that the man was taken into custody.
We should be outraged. Abruptly separating people from their families, as ICE has been doing across the country for months, is cruel and traumatizing enough. Arresting a man in front of his child — and his child’s classmates — on the way to school is even worse.
Community members have called on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to increase its transparency and communication, and that is very much needed. This might not be the only time something like this happens on or near CMS property, and school staff need training and guidance about what to do when it happens again.
But the district also needs to make it clear that what’s happening is wrong.
So far, the response of CMS leadership to the Trump administration’s actions has been that of subdued criticism. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education has expressed concern about the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and cuts to federal funding and services. In a February statement, the school board reaffirmed its commitment to supporting all students regardless of immigration status.
That didn’t change after Monday’s incident. The board released a statement Tuesday in which it said that while the “unsettling” incident did not occur on school property, CMS will provide additional counseling support to students and staff at the school. The statement also reaffirmed — again — the board’s “commitment to the well-being of every student.”
But when a kid just watched a parent get arrested on the way to school, those hollow commitments are just not good enough. Abrupt detentions may technically be legal when they don’t occur on school property, but that doesn’t make them OK. Where is the condemnation? Where is the outrage?
What happened on Monday was exactly the kind of thing people have feared would happen since Trump took office in January. Since then, ICE has swept cities throughout the country to arrest undocumented immigrants, sometimes without sharing their whereabouts or identities. While the Trump administration has promised to prioritize those with criminal convictions, a growing number of people detained by ICE have no criminal history at all.
It’s scary. It’s cruel. It’s wrong — and our leaders need to step up and say it. Moments like this demand bolder leadership, and they are moments that are happening everywhere. Universities, including ours in North Carolina, are faced with the choice to stand up to Donald Trump or accept the threat he poses to their institutional values. Law firms and corporations also have the choice to capitulate to Trump’s threats or stand up to them.
There’s an example of such bold leadership in Charlotte. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden has been steadfast in opposing cooperation with ICE throughout his tenure as sheriff, and he has refused to unlawfully detain people on ICE’s behalf. McFadden and other sheriffs have forcefully opposed state bills that try to force his cooperation with immigration officials, saying they erode trust, encourage racial profiling and divert resources away from more important efforts. Those laws may tie his hands in the end, but at least he is putting up a fight.
CMS needs to put up a fight, too. Monday’s arrest did not require the district’s compliance, so there is little CMS could have done to prevent it. And, like McFadden, CMS is also bound by the law. But it’s not completely powerless, either. What the district chooses to say and do right now matters, especially to a community that’s scared.
But it’s bigger than that, too. Standing up, like Harvard University and other institutions have done, gives others agency to do the same. Yes, this is a moment that needs bold leadership, but it also one that requires collective action. What CMS needs to do now is take a clear stance — one that says unequivocally that incidents like this are wrong. Nobody should ever be afraid to take their child to school. It’s as simple as that.
