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Updated, Feb. 13

The world is a messy place. Most of us figure this out by the time we hit adulthood: However compelling our convictions, however good our intentions, humans are constantly tripping into one another. What looks like virtuous, upstanding behavior through our eyes 鈥� always looks different to others. Worse yet, sometimes the Good Thing to Do in a moment can be all but impossible to discern. Do you tell the truth now, even if that causes your friend pain? Do you tell them later, even if your delay hurts many more people? Do you turn to violence to stop the violence of others 鈥� and if so, how much?聽

Pretty much every moral tradition is clear that harm to children is among the gravest misdeeds. This isn鈥檛 complicated. Children merit unique protective cushions because of their enormous potential. How they develop now will shape their 鈥� and our 鈥� future. Further, children cannot deserve harm. They鈥檙e morally blameless 鈥� . As messy as the world is, it鈥檚 obvious that adults shouldn鈥檛 hurt children. Further, systems that are somehow violating this 鈥� bombing them, shooting them, starving them, injuring them 鈥� are also fundamentally wrong. There are no legitimate excuses. End of discussion. 

Hold that close to your heart as you reflect on the Trump administration鈥檚 recent decision to open K鈥�12 campuses to armed enforcement actions. For 14 years, the U.S. federal government had recommended that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents should steer clear of 鈥溾�� like schools, but also churches, hospitals and other community centers. Immediately after taking power, , opening schools across the country to immigration raids. 

To understand the behind this change, it鈥檚 worth understanding why officials ever avoided conducting enforcement at these locations. It鈥檚 not that federal leaders were reluctant to carry out U.S. laws, rather, it鈥檚 that they wanted to separate the potentially dangerous, complex work of immigration enforcement activity from disrupting children鈥檚 daily lives. 

As , 鈥淲e can accomplish our law enforcement mission without denying individuals access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more. Adherence to this principle is a bedrock of our stature as public servants.鈥�

Again: Protecting kids is a paramount moral concern. And in 2025, it鈥檚 clear that U.S. adults have collectively failed in that task. Today鈥檚 K鈥�12 students have weathered the academic and social strains of a deadly global pandemic. They attend school in an era when campus shootings are regularly in the news and natural disasters amplified by climate change have decimated their communities and shuttered their classrooms in places like , and . They’ve watched violent assaults on representative government being not just normalized as part of U.S. politics 鈥� but excused and even celebrated by the leaders of one of our major political parties. Is it any wonder that children鈥檚 mental health ?

The kids are not all right. This is a terrible moment to introduce more uncertainty and instability into their lives. At least one major district is pushing back. Denver Public Schools this week to keep ICE agents out of schools, with the school board president noting, “Scared children can鈥檛 learn.”

Obviously, the Trump administration鈥檚 new ICE-in-Your- Classrooms policy could be stressful for children of immigrants, who are uniquely sensitive to the possible consequences of these raids. Research has that increased immigration enforcement activity around children of immigrants . In the weeks since Trump鈥檚 order, , regardless of the specific state of their family鈥檚 documentation, . 

And yet, this new policy affects all children. , 鈥淭his administration is breaking with the idea that schools should be an accepting and reassuring space for young people.鈥� Children don鈥檛 have to have an immigrant parent to struggle with this moment. It鈥檚 hard to imagine how armed law enforcement activity on campus could help them feel safer or help them learn more, especially as the most recent round of math and reading scores have confirmed that the country鈥檚 students are falling further off pace, academically speaking. 

Of course, that鈥檚 perhaps the point. The new administration鈥檚 K鈥�12 education plans are thin (at best) when it comes to proposals for improving how schools support children鈥檚 academic achievement. , Trump and his deputies are and . 

This won鈥檛 make communities safer or improve kids鈥� academic performance. Research , shows that are major to their . It also has found that culturally and linguistically diverse kids are some of U.S. schools鈥� best students, whose presence appears to academic achievement . 

If this debate still seems complicated: remember that the world鈥檚 messy. U.S. immigration laws, , should be enforced. Meanwhile, our kids 鈥� currently overcoming generationally awful obstacles 鈥� deserve to feel safe and secure enough to focus on learning. 

But anyone who reflects on those two public priorities and concludes that children鈥檚 well-being is of secondary importance is betraying the depravity of their moral compass. They are showing that they do not, however much they protest, understand what it means to put students first. 

Conor P. Williams is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a Founding Partner at the Children鈥檚 Equity Project, and a father to three public school students. These views are his alone and do not reflect his employers or any organizations with which he may be affiliated. 

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