This story has been updated to include comment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the Wednesday arrest.
Educators and elected officials blasted ICE for what they said was the third arrest this month of a parent outside a San Diego-area elementary school.
In the latest case, armed men in bulletproof vests arrested a father outside an Encinitas elementary school Wednesday morning while his young daughter watched, officials said.
In a video of the incident posted to Instagram by a parent group, the men, at least one with his face covered, can be seen pulling a man dressed in a neon orange safety shirt and work boots out of a pickup truck.
The incident occurred at Park Dale Lane Elementary in Village Park, at 7:30 a.m., after the father had left the drop-off line, local officials said. During the arrest, bystanders asked the agents for a warrant signed by a judge; they apparently did not provide one.
The men making the arrest wore labels on their vests that referred to federal agencies. One was marked “ERO,” which is the acronym for Enforcement and Removal Operations, a unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other vests said “ATF,” the acronym for another federal law enforcement agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
ICE did not respond to a request to comment on the arrest Wednesday. In a written statement Thursday, an unidentified DHS official said, “This arrest took place multiple blocks away from and entirely out of view of Park Dale Elementary School.”
The man arrested was from Guatemala and had an order of removal from an immigration judge since 2017, according to ICE. The statement did not say whether the man had any criminal record.
“During the arrest, his spouse appeared at that scene and with a young child … and proceeded to involve herself and child in the situation,” the ICE statement said.
State Sen. Catherine Blakespear said in a Wednesday news release that the men making the arrest “appear to be federal police working for ICE” but they did not show identification, and they gave no reason for the arrest. The man had just pulled over to drop his daughter at school, Blakespear said, when agents “abruptly separated him from his child and family.”
“This is inhumane, barbaric, and lawless. We should all be outraged,” Blakespear said. She referred to the current state of the country as a “police state… where any person can be apprehended on the street without probable cause for arrest.”
Andrée Grey, the superintendent of the Encinitas Union School District, said in a statement that the arrest, which was witnessed by parents, students and school staff, had caused an atmosphere of “fear and trauma.” Grey said the district’s policy is to not share any information with authorities unless through a court order or judicial subpoena.
In a statement posted to social media, the Parents of Encinitas Union School District said the man’s daughter “has suffered a life-altering loss” and is “a victim of policy.” The group posted a gofundme link to help the family.
If the arrest is immigration-related, it marks a pattern of at least three incidents outside schools in San Diego County in the last two weeks.
On August 6, ICE arrested a woman while she was dropping off her child at Camarena Elementary in Chula Vista, and on August 14, ICE made a similar arrest of a father outside Linda Vista Elementary.
After the Linda Vista raid, ICE responded to Times of San Diego and said that any rumors that ICE agents were targeting the school were “smears.” School superintendents argue that even if the arrests happen just outside school grounds, instead of on school property, their proximity still deeply affects the community.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing ICE to make arrests in schools, churches and hospitals, areas that had previously been off-limits to protect essential services and prevent disruptions for children.
In a statement responding to the arrest at Park Dale Lane Elementary posted on social media, U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Carlsbad, said that raids at schools like this one are “wrong and unacceptable,” and that he had personally asked the Department of Homeland Security to cease this practice. “No child should face that fear, particularly not when being dropped off at school,” he said.
When a parent is deported, a family may face a choice of whether a child will stay with a qualified family member in the U.S., move to a foreign country or enter the child welfare system.
In the video outside Park Dale Lane Elementary, as the agents are putting the arrested man in the back of their car, a bystander yells at the officers to let the man have a moment to say goodbye to his family. The agents place him inside their black SUV without ceremony.
Lillian Perlmutter covers immigration for Times of San Diego and NEWSWELL.
