For mixed status families, deportation fears cast shadow over new academic year

For mixed status families, deportation fears cast shadow over new academic year

Jasmine Garsd

September 04, 2025 / 1:43 pm

Across the U.S., many parents are breathing a collective sigh of relief: school is back in session. Sitting in her trailer home in rural southern Maryland, a woman who asks to go by her first initial, "M.", says she is one of those very relieved parents. That's because she spent most of the summer indoors with her four children and says it almost drove her crazy. She asked NPR to refer to her by first initial only because she is undocumented, and like many immigrants without papers, the new school year is bringing up new fears and anxiety about ICE enforcement in and around schools.

M. holds a strand of her hair up. "Look", she says laughing, pointing at white st