Rinaldi, Ortiz: Rumors of immigration officials operating on school property this week are false

By Eugene Caibal (’25) | Editor-in-Chief

A rumor spread via social media that immigration officials, including ICE agents, will be conducting operations on Stamford Public Schools property this week is false, according to Westhill school officials.

A screenshot of a text message written in Spanish implying that immigration officials would be “at school” on both Wednesday and Thursday was circulated among various social media accounts of Stamford Public Schools students and community members on apps such as Instagram. Neither the authorship nor the validity of the claim was ever verified by city officials. 

Both Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Specialist Jonathan Ortiz and Assistant Principal Peter Rinaldi said they have “not heard of any such information,” commenting that any such rumors were unsubstantiated. 

Ortiz affirmed that SPS officials would notify community members as soon as possible regarding immigration enforcement operations near or on school property, and that only official district communication should be taken seriously.

Stamford was one of the last cities in Connecticut to issue a statement regarding the federal government’s updated policies removing immigration enforcement-protected status for schools, with Hartford and Bridgeport issuing theirs as early as last week. 

Additionally, an email informing community members that ICE officials were operating in the downtown area arrived eight hours after city police and officials were originally notified. 

District superintendent Dr. Tamu Lucero said that the city’s slow rollout was due to the district’s commitment to “accuracy, not speed,” as well as the translation efforts needed to disseminate this information to a multilingual Stamford community. 

Though the probability is “very low” according to Dr. Lucero, who spoke to a group of Stamford Public Schools administrators and students Tuesday night, in the event federal immigration officials produce a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge that allows them to conduct immigration-related operations on private SPS property, city officials will have to cooperate and said they cannot intervene.

Ortiz emphasized that the district is committed to providing a “safe school environment for all students” and would take all necessary steps to ensure that, should immigration officials produce a valid judicial warrant allowing them entry onto private Stamford Public Schools property, it would do “everything to make the process as safe as possible” and to mitigate any potential undue harm. 

This comes as drops in attendance among sheltered and English Language Learner populations across both Westhill and Stamford High, according to Dr. Lucero and other sources familiar with the matter, continue to rise under the current Trump administration, which has said mass deportation of undocumented Americans would be one of its top priorities.

For students who do not show up in fear of immigration raids on school grounds, Dr. Lucero assured community members that training will take place with the attendance committees at all three high schools, who review absences on an individual student basis, regarding policy changes catered to these students who refuse to attend out of fear for their own safety.