Immigration raids are making kids skip school, even if their families aren't the ones being targeted.
April 17, 2026
Original Paper
Immigration Enforcement Actions and Empty Desks: Persistent and Acute Attendance Effects
SSRN · 6583522
The Takeaway
We often think of immigration enforcement as something that only affects the people being detained. This study shows a massive 'chilling effect' where federal enforcement actions cause a spike in school absences across the entire foreign-born student population. Older students are hit the hardest, as the fear of a raid ripples through the community and disrupts the basic stability of the classroom. It’s a quantifiable look at how political actions in the 'adult' world create a persistent educational crisis for children. For these kids, a policy debate isn't just news—it’s a reason to be afraid to go to school.
From the abstract
How do immigration enforcement actions (IEAs) affect student attendance, and through what channels? We use student-by-day administrative records from a mid-size school district to estimate the causal effect of heightened federal immigration enforcement following the January 2025 presidential inauguration on student attendance using a difference-in-differences design. We find that IEAs cause a substantial and persistent increase in absences among foreign-born students, with the daily probability