When school districts overreact to youthful misbehavior, law enforcement sometimes steps in, which in turn can trigger the attention of federal immigration enforcement. For immigrant students and their families, that means facing outsized threats of detention and deportation based on minor lapses. Some districts have even made flimsy allegations of gang involvement to local police that have ensnared students in the Trump administration’s deportation dragnet.

The NYCLU works with communities to call out school officials and their law enforcement partners for criminalizing adolescence, and is taking the Trump administration to court for its reckless and cruel targeting of immigrant students.