Photo by MChe Lee/Unplash
Audio By Carbonatix
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies have touched nearly every part of American life — reshaping workplaces, neighborhoods, homes, and schools alike.
But while classrooms across the United States have felt the effects from the beginning of Trump’s second term, new data shows just how far-reaching those effects have been.
As students’ families have been deported or voluntarily returned to their home countries under Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, schools nationwide have seen massive drops in enrollment among immigrant students, according to the Associated Press.
In Miami-Dade County Public Schools — the country’s third-largest public school district, which educates thousands of migrant students — roughly 2,550 students from another country have enrolled so far this school year, down from nearly 14,000 the previous year and more than 20,000 the year before that. In Palm Beach County public schools, enrollment has reportedly fallen by more than 6,000 students this year. A spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools tells New Times that while 6,439 foreign-born students were enrolled last year, that number fell to 3,242 this school year.
When news happens, Miami New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If Miami New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
According to the Associated Press, the enrollment declines in Miami-Dade “erased about $70 million from the district’s annual budget” and left administrators scrambling to cover the shortfall.
A spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Public Schools did not respond to New Times‘ request for comment.
Since Trump won the presidential election last November, students across the country have been increasingly anxious about his promises of mass deportations.
In January, the Trump administration issued a directive allowing immigration officials to conduct raids at schools and churches, “sensitive” places that were previously off-limits. The directive, which was in place since 2011 under the Obama and Biden administrations, prohibited ICE agents from making arrests in such places unless “absolutely necessary.”
Weeks later, Karla Hernández-Mats, former president of the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) union, told New Times that some Miami-Dade students had stopped showing up to school amid their families’ fears of deportation.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has a sizable immigrant population, with more than 20,000 students from other countries enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year. Most of these students came from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti via a Biden-era parole program that allowed migrants to live and legally work in the U.S. for two years.
In August, NBC 6 South Florida reported that the district saw 13,000 fewer students enroll this school year compared to last. In a presentation to reporters that month, superintendent Jose Dotres said “the greatest impact of our enrollment issue is not students leaving us,” but “students that are not coming to us.” He cited a few reasons for the enrollment drop, most notably the decline in immigration to the U.S.
Dotres said principals reached out to immigrant parents to gauge whether deportation fears were affecting attendance, but concluded they were not.
The country’s foreign-born population decreased by more than a million people from January to June, marking its first decline since the 1960s, according to the Pew Research Center.
“We are having less newcomers, they’re not coming into the country, and they’re not coming into our schools,” Dotres said.
