Throngs of students, parents and community members crowded around the School Board of Sarasota County building on Tuesday morning, forming a line so long that many could not get a seat in the meeting happening inside.
More than 100 people signed up to speak, while hundreds more protested outside, carrying signs denouncing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Sarasota School Board Chair Bridget Ziegler, who proposed a resolution calling for full cooperation with the federal agency inside public schools.
Despite the outcry, board members voted 3 to 2 to pass the measure, committing to “full cooperation and collaboration” with ICE and stating that the school board will not raise “additional barriers, policies or directives” that could “hinder or delay lawful law enforcement actions on school property.”
ALSO READ: Sarasota School Board passes resolution affirming cooperation with ICE after hundreds speak
Speakers overwhelmingly decried the resolution and shared fears of scenes from places like Minneapolis — of masked agents breaking into cars and homes — taking place in the Sarasota public schools.
The tension surrounding the nearly 7-hour school board meeting highlights how the national immigration crackdown has sowed mistrust between local communities and federal law enforcement — even in a deep red county like Sarasota. It also introduced thorny legal questions about the role of public schools in maintaining a safe learning environment while collaborating with federal police who have ramped up deportation efforts this year.
As it stands, the school district’s current protocols for handling possible visits from ICE — or local law enforcement with immigration enforcement powers — are unclear.
Sarasota County Schools does not collect information about students’ immigration status and is subject to strict privacy requirements regarding student information.
The district has no formal policy on immigration enforcement entering school property. Administrators insisted Tuesday that schools would grant entry to ICE only if officers provide lawful paperwork, which can mean a few different things.
Judicial warrants versus removal orders
Known as “ICE warrants,” removal orders are in fact administrative documents that do not carry the force of a judicial warrant as in a criminal case, said Bradenton immigration attorney Luis Castro.
ALSO READ: Sarasota School Board Chair Bridget Ziegler wants district to collaborate with ICE
“A lot of times ICE will come and say they have a warrant, but that may just be a removal order signed by an immigration judge and does not give them authority to enter a [private space],” Castro said. Under the fourth amendment, “judicial warrants require probable cause and authorize entry into private property.”
Under Florida’s anti-sanctuary laws, and in the wake of a federal policy change allowing ICE to enter into “sensitive” spaces like schools and churches, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida advised schools that they still have the authority to insist on a judicial warrant or subpoena before letting agents enter spaces within the school that are not open to the public.
The ACLU also recommended that schools designate an individual, such as a principal, as the sole point of contact with immigration enforcement, according to a memo it sent to school districts in February 2025.
Sarasota County Schools “does not currently have a policy that specifically addresses law enforcement seeking to enter a school for the purposes of immigration enforcement,” according to a district spokeswoman. She said anyone seeking to enter a school would need to adhere to the district’s visitor policy.
That policy requires visitors to enter via a single entry point, then sign in. Adult visitors who do not have a child enrolled in the school would need permission from the school principal.
Cassie Jewell, a mother of middle and high school students, asked for the district to formalize a policy specifying that schools require judicial warrants for immigration enforcement officers to enter.
“Affirm on the record,” Jewell said during the meeting, “that no child’s access to public education is conditioned on immigration status. If this resolution truly reflects existing law, there should be no objection to including those protections clearly and explicitly.”
During the school board meeting, Sarasota County Schools Chief of Police Tim Enos told the board that his officers would assist with “administrative” orders, not just judicial ones. He did not return requests for clarification.
ICE in schools would be uncharted territory
Ziegler’s resolution comes a year after the Department of Homeland Security — the agency under which ICE is housed — rescinded its prior policy of not conducting immigration enforcement in churches, schools, hospitals and other “sensitive” places. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed a bill in 2025 restricting so-called “sanctuary” policies by local governments and requiring law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE.
The school board meeting further stoked tensions between local communities fearing Trump’s immigration crackdown and the federal police enforcing it. Opponents of the resolution decried it as political theater and intimidation, while Ziegler cast it as a ceremonial affirmation of law enforcement and downplayed community fears of ICE on campuses.
“ICE has shown repeatedly that they will profile and violently hurt, detain and murder anyone, including US citizens, whether born or naturalized,” Booker High School student Lila Dickey said during public comment. “If your goal is to keep the classroom a safe space, then allowing ICE into schools is everything but that.”
So far, Trump’s immigration crackdown has centered on prominent blue-leaning cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and, more recently, Minneapolis. School board members repeatedly rejected the notion that Sarasota schools will be subject to such operations.
“There was a lot of conversation around this time last year about ‘oh no, there’s gonna be ICE raids at schools,’” Ziegler said. “That’s not happening.”
Even so, ICE detentions have spiked in Florida since Trump’s return to office, with the bulk of them facilitated through county jails. Cooperation between local law enforcement and the federal government is higher in Florida than any other state in the country — every sheriff in the state has signed agreements with ICE that allow some officers to be trained to conduct immigration enforcement.
Speakers at the Tuesday meeting attested to the climate of fear that has grown among immigrants in the community.
“I’m a green card holder, my wife and kids are USA residents, and the saddest part is today my first thought was, ‘Am I going to be stopped just to come here and talk to you guys? Just because I have a last name that you cannot pronounce?’” said Francisco Madrigal, who spoke at the school board meeting.
“And you know what, that’s the feeling that every parent is going to have at drop off and at pick up when they come to see their kids.”
This story was originally published by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom delivering investigative journalism to Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
Editor's note: Suncoast Searchlight says it does not use generative AI in its stories. If you have questions about their policies or content, contact Executive Editor-In-Chief Emily Le Coz at emily@suncoastsearchlight.org.
