Safe Routes to Schools Includes Protecting Families from ICE
Safe Routes to Schools is dedicated to keeping families safe, not only on the streets while walking and rolling to school, but at home and within their communities as well. As ICE raids grow more frequent and aggressive around the country, the Safe Routes community is standing up to make sure kids get to school safely, no matter their immigration status or that of their families.
Quick response and foot patrols
On October 22, 2025, federal immigration agents were expected to arrive in Alameda County as part of a large-scale enforcement operation. As news spread, communities across the Bay Area quickly came together to support and protect one another. Still, school attendance was down on the days ICE was expected (the increased raids mostly never materialized in the Bay Area), highlighting the need to provide protection from many types of hazards to ensure that all children can get an education.
This moment reinforced what Safe Routes to Schools knows firsthand: safety must always come first when promoting walking and rolling to school.
In Oakland and other cities across the East Bay, the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) began to equip community members with the tools they needed to organize foot patrols as a rapid response to ICE’s presence near school campuses. It supported trainings for volunteers who can be visible and welcoming during school pickup and drop-off times and who are also ready to initiate Alameda County’s Rapid Response Protocol, should the need arise. ACOE also provided reflective vests, whistles, and air horns to volunteers to help them establish a safe pathway to each school site.
Similar community-led responses also took place in Hayward, where residents mobilized to monitor and respond to federal enforcement activity. These efforts were rooted in care, visibility, and collective action to help families feel safer during school drop-off and pickup times.
How to get involved
It takes a village to protect vulnerable students and families. If you’d like to be part of this positive, proactive movement to help students get to school safely, there are many ways to help out.
- Participate in community foot patrols or rapid response networks
- Attend trainings or webinars on community safety and immigrant rights
Where to find information
- Local community-based organizations and rapid response networks
- School-Based Resources in Response to Federal Actions
- Link to print your own redcards
- Ask school front office staff how you can best support them in alignment with school policies and procedures.
- Know Your Rights materials from trusted immigrant advocacy groups
- The Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP) Hotline is open and taking calls. If you are in Alameda County and witness Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in action, suspect ICE activity in progress, or if you or someone you know is detained by ICE, please contact the hotline at (510) 241-4011 during the operating hours of 6 AM – 6 PM. Priority will be given to calls related to ICE arrests.
Even before the escalated threat, a community member from the Tri-Valley Women’s Action Group had reached out to our programs team to share that families, particularly those with mixed status, needed support getting their children to school safely. In response to her request, Safe Routes to Schools hosted a webinar on organizing walking school buses as a community-based safety strategy. Leading up to the webinar, as a response to the threat of ICE, our team worked with community members to help set up a walking school bus, ensuring students could travel to and from school with added visibility, safety, and support.
And though the Bay Area hasn’t seen the large-scale raids and militarized enforcement that some other parts of the country have, tensions have remained high. ICE has targeted guardians in school drop-off and pickup lines. An attempt to take a parent into custody outside Hoover Elementary School in West Oakland last November sparked community outrage and led to increased foot patrols to protect students and families.
Protecting families
At its core, Safe Routes to Schools is about more than transportation — it’s about dignity, safety, and ensuring all families can access school without fear. Walking school buses, foot patrols, and community coordination are just some of the ways Safe Routes supports communities that are stepping up to protect kids and families during uncertain times.
Our team has been actively building relationships with local foot patrol organizers and identifying ways to meaningfully support these efforts through our programming and resources. Through this work, we have had the opportunity to observe and participate in community-led patrols, which has been both informative and deeply inspiring.
Organizers and volunteers are proactively training, sharing information, and developing clear protocols to respond to potential ICE encounters near public schools. It’s encouraging to see so many community members willingly commit their time to foot patrols across the East Bay.
While the number of reported cases of ICE targeting people at school sites in Alameda County has not been as high as in Southern California, particularly in and around Los Angeles, the level of preparation, coordination, and care within Bay Area communities increases safety for all. These efforts reflect a strong sense of collective responsibility and readiness, especially around schools with predominantly Latino student bodies. The presence of organized, informed, and visible community members has helped foster a sense of safety, trust, and solidarity around school campuses that helps students feel safe to come to class.
In response to yesterday’s horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good by federal immigration agents, Transform condemns the violence, deportations, and arrests perpetrated by the Trump regime.
