A large group is marching through DeKalb, protesting President Trump’s calls for mass deportations. Among the group is Northern Illinois University student David Guillermo Murillo.
He’s flying the flag of his Latin fraternity, Lamda Theta Phi, and thinking about one of their mottos.
“En la union, esta la fuerza," he said. "In unity there is the force, there is the power."
Murillo comes from a family of immigrants. He says he has family and friends who work hard and contribute to their community -- and don’t have legal status.
“We've had this kind of fear in the past," said Murillo, "where it's been like rumors or people will be kind of dismissive of the severity of things, but 100% it does feel entirely different this time."
The day after the inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security eliminated guidance that had limited immigration enforcement actions in “protected spaces.” Those spaces included schools, playgrounds, school bus stops, and child care centers.
Shortly after, NIU released guidelines on “If ICE comes to campus.” It informs students and staff about what to do if they’re contacted by federal immigration agents.
It advises them to politely ask for the officer’s name, ID number and agency affiliation. It tells them to assure the officer you’re not obstructing their process, but there’s a specific administrator to contact. It describes which spaces are public and which are limited or restricted, even to immigration officers.
NIU also has an Undocumented Student Resource Center.
In late January, McHenry County College hosted an immigration “Know Your Rights” event for students and the community. A spokesperson for the college says it holds these types of information sessions every semester.
This session was led by representatives from the YWCA. They talked about various local immigration resources, as well as the different sorts of warrants ICE might use.
“The administrative warrant is created by ICE [as] part of their systems and operations," said the speaker, "but that does not grant entry into a home, so it has to be a judicial warrant that's signed and dated."
The presentation also told parents to identify who can take care of their children if they’re detained, and to update emergency contact numbers at their school.
These conversations have also been playing out at K-12 school districts. Students at several Rockford high schools walked out of class to protest the new administration’s immigration.
The DeKalb School District also released a message for concerned families after the inauguration. Minerva Garcia-Sanchez is the superintendent. She says they’re seeing some scared families, even people who are U.S. citizens but are afraid they’ll be targeted for being Latino or speaking Spanish.
“I have noticed some parents are a little bit more proactive about, ’If this were to happen to me, please make sure that these folks have my kids,’ that kind of thing," said the superintendent. "We're not asking them to do that. It's something that they've chosen to do on their own.”
She says been trying to reassure parents that they’re safe to send their kids to school. They have a plan in place for if ICE comes to a school. For one, she says they can’t divulge immigration status information to federal agencies -- and that’s largely because they don’t know. She says that information isn’t necessary for enrollment.
“The Constitution says that they have a right to a free education," said Garcia-Sanchez. "It doesn't say anything about anything else other than anybody who comes here gets a free education, and we cannot ask about any status."
There are some Head Start childcare centers in northern Illinois that say they have seen a decrease in attendance since new immigration policies went into effect. Some have said they have parents -- even those who do have legal status -- who are afraid to leave their house or send their kids to school.
So far, Garcia-Sanchez says she hasn’t seen a substantial decline in attendance in DeKalb She believes that’s because of all of the work the district has done to make sure parents know their rights and the school’s plans.
She says she hopes it stays that way, because students can only learn if they’re at school. And when they’re at school, they need to feel safe and comfortable to flourish.
