webinar

Immigrants Are Welcome Here

PAST EVENT
February 19, 2026

GTY’s Feb 19 program addressed the impacts of immigration enforcement on school communities, examining data from a national survey of high school principals showing fear and anxiety among students and families, declining enrollment, attendance and learning, and increased bullying.

Speakers included the survey’s authors, a school administrator and students discussing the challenges — and offering strategies to center belonging and support immigrant communities in this moment.

Watch recording

Top Takeaway

Immigration enforcement is not an abstract policy issue but a daily force reshaping school life, eroding safety, trust, and learning for immigrant students. Schools, communities, and funders can respond by creating safety protocols and centering belonging, mutual aid, family support, community connections, and youth voice.

More Takeaways

  1. The Fear is Everywhere report: more than 70% of principals reported students from immigrant families were worried about their own or their families’ well-being, and nearly two-thirds said students missed school because of immigration-related policies and rhetoric. Fear depressed attendance, disrupted lessons, and sent the message to many immigrant youth that their government did not want them and could not be trusted, causing lasting consequences for educational achievement and civic participation.
  2. Principals created safety plans, drafted protocols for when family members were detained, and partnered with community and legal organizations to support students. Many described the heartbreak of feeling responsible for students’ safety without being able to fully protect them.
  3. Students spoke about living with constant uncertainty while still showing up as leaders in class, clubs, and their communities. They noted they receive support through faith, family, relationships with friends and teachers, and community service. They asserted that immigrants are hardworking people striving for a better future and rejected the hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric amplified in today’s national conversation.
  4. Schools should work in partnership with community-based organizations to increase opportunities for students to participate in afterschool and youth development programs and connect students and families with food and essentials, legal assistance, mutual aid, and opportunities to engage in community service.

Resources

Webinar slides

The Fear Is Everywhere report

Internationals Network

Beyond Protection: An Administrator’s Guide to Building Belonging in a Time of Fear. By Reimagining Migration

Internationals Network for Public Schools Newcomer Resources

Immigration Initiative at Harvard

Sanctuary School: Innovating to Empower Youth. Book by Chandler Patton Miranda

Supporting Immigrant Youth to Thrive – Sept 25, 2025 webinar by Grantmakers for Thriving Youth

The Costs of Conflict: The Fiscal Impact of Culturally Divisive Conflict on Public Schools in the United States. Report by Rogers, J., White, R., Shand, R., Kahne, J. UCLA/IDEA Publications

What Can Philanthropy Do?

  • Support school-wide practices and curricula that build an “infrastructure of belonging,” where every student is known, valued, and connected, and migration is treated as part of the human story.
  • Fund networks and intermediaries that connect schools with community organizations, legal providers, and basic-needs supports, and help spread effective welcoming-school practices across sites and states.
  • Invest in structures that allow immigrant youth to share their experiences and lead, recognizing that helping students become “the best versions of themselves,” including as civic actors, benefits the whole community.

Memorable Quotes

We are here for a future. We are here to become someone and be a better person — the best version of ourselves.

—Student, Internationals Network for Public Schools

I understand that my education is the best tool I have to face whatever fate has in store for me…We are just trying to survive now.

—Student, Internationals Network for Public Schools

Internationals Network schools make you feel like you really belong there…through collaboration, project-based learning, performance-based assessments where you build portfolios over years, and spaces where everyone feels safe speaking their own language—whether Spanish, English with an accent, or anything else.

—Gerard Gomez, Internationals Network for Public Schools

Our democracy depends on our ability to sustain safe and inclusive schools that foster learning and understanding and enable all young people to build bridges and forge alliances across lines of difference.

—John Rogers, UCLA

Contact the Speakers

If you’d like to follow up with any of these speakers, please reach out to GTY.

Speakers

Students

Internationals Network for Public Schools

Internationals Network designs, develops, and supports schools and programs for recently-arrived immigrants and refugees. Their vision is to ensure that all recent immigrant students who are multilingual learners have access to a quality education that prepares them for college, career and beyond.

John Rogers

Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Research and Public Scholarship, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies

John Rogers is a Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Research and Public Scholarship and also serves as the Director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. Rogers studies issues of democracy and education, and has written widely about the role of students, parents, and school leaders in educating toward a multiracial democracy. His scholarship also examines the effects of broad political dynamics on learning and well-being in U.S. public schools.

Professor Rogers’ research is regularly featured in local, state, and national media and he produces a weekly newsletter, Just News, that highlights important issues related to education and social justice. John Rogers is the recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Presidential Citation. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University and his B.A. in Public Policy and African American Studies from Princeton University.

Joseph Kahne

Dutton Presidential Professor of Education Policy and Politics, University of California, Riverside

Joseph Kahne is also Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group at UC, Riverside. Professor Kahne’s research focuses on the influence of school practices on youth civic and political development. For example, he is currently studying implementation of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap in NM, OK, and LA. He is also partnering with David Campbell and David Kidd on a project to develop new measures of civic outcomes. In addition, with John Rogers, he is studying the politics of democratic education — examining ways the political contexts of school districts shape possibilities for democratic education and the varied ways educators respond.

Professor Kahne was Chair of the MacArthur Foundation’s Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. Kahne was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. He currently chairs the Educating for American Democracy Research Task Force. Professor Kahne is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

Gerard Gomez

Assistant Principal, Pan American International School at Monroe, Bronx, New York

Gerard Gomez was born in the Dominican Republic and arrived in New York City in December 2000. He came with almost no English, but he brought determination that couldn’t be taught. Growing up in Washington Heights, one of the neighborhoods with one of the largest Dominican immigrant populations, shaped how he saw the world: resilient, diverse, and always moving forward.

He graduated from Manhattan International High School in 2006 and went on to Baruch College, earning a BBA in finance. After college, Gerard joined the NYC Teaching Fellows program and became a math teacher at Pan American International High School at Monroe. He earned a master’s degree in Scientific Education with a bilingual extension from St. John’s University, completed both his School Building and District Building licenses, and was later hired as an Assistant Principal at Pan American International School at Monroe.

Presented by

Grantmakers for Thriving Youth

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