Rodrigo Osorio, a 31-year-old father, was taken into federal immigration custody after he dropped his son off at a school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week.
Osorio, who was released later that day, was held in custody at an immigration facility in Detroit for about eight hours before his release, reports said.
Why It Matters
Policy changes under President Donald Trump’s administration have loosened restrictions that previously required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to obtain prior approval before arresting individuals at “sensitive locations,” such as schools, hospitals and churches.
According to critics, enforcement actions have since increased in and around those places. The incident in Ann Arbor mirrors other widely reported cases in which ICE agents have detained parents near schools, raising concerns among educators, parents and local officials about the potential emotional effects on children.
What To Know
Federal immigration agents took Osorio into custody after he dropped his son off at Lakewood Elementary School on September 4, according to the news outlet MLive.
He told the outlet that he was a block away from the school when he saw the lights of a few vehicles and pulled to the side to allow them to pass. But they stopped and apprehended him instead.
Osorio, who came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 7 and has lived most of his life in the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas of Michigan, has been protected from removal under DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, since 2012.
“What triggered a lot of people is that it happened near the school,” Osorio told MLive. “That they waited for me to drop my kid off and pick me up.”
“My kid is pretty traumatized out of this, I would say. He’s been asking me, ‘Are they gonna come pick you up again?’ He asked, ‘Who picked you up? What’s going on?’ And I don’t think an 8-year-old should be concerned about [that].”
“It’s just been pretty hard in a way,” he added.
Osorio said he was never provided a reason for his detainment, adding that federal authorities “kept changing up the story.”
Both ICE and Ann Arbor Public Schools told MLive that federal authorities did not enter school grounds and no students witnessed agents taking Osorio.
In a statement on Friday, an ICE spokesperson told MLive that Osorio was found “not amenable to removal for the United States” upon further review.
Federal officials said that claims of individuals being apprehended as part of broader, school-based “raids” were completely inaccurate. A Department of Homeland Security memo issued on Tuesday described such reports as “fake news.”
“After media force-feeding the public stories about parents and children being scared to return to school, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is setting the record straight: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does NOT raid or target schools,” the memo said.
It added that the DHS directive that allows ICE to go into schools “gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”
“Our agents use discretion,” the memo continued. “Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”
What People Are Saying
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “The media is sadly attempting to create a climate of fear and smear law enforcement. These smears are contributing to our ICE law enforcement officers facing 1,000 percent increase in assaults against them. ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools. ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children.
“Criminals are no longer be able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense. If a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a school, or a child sex offender is working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect public safety. But this has not happened.”
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