From schools to detention centers: The escalation of U.S. immigration raids

Recent reports show that two 16-year-old students from Western International High School in Detroit were arrested during a raid carried out by U.S. federal immigration officers.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents stormed their east Detroit home with a search warrant for someone else. After failing to find their intended target, the officers arrested the two teenage students along with one parent from each family.

The teenagers—Venezuelan asylum seekers with active cases and valid work permits—had been working at a restaurant and were described as excellent students.

The two students and their family members are now imprisoned in a migrant detention center in southern Texas.

Their attorney said the officers entered the home while the residents were asleep.

He said, “The immigration officers suddenly appeared at the door, entered the home, and told everyone inside that they were all under arrest.”

The lawyer added that all four detained individuals had pending asylum applications, and that they were transferred to Texas very quickly.

These students are not the first from Western International to be taken. On May 20, 2025, Michael Bogoya-Duarte was stopped by police on his way to school. He was later detained by Border Patrol and deported to Colombia in June.

There is no national or state database tracking the number of students or minors who have been taken, detained, or deported. However, the Detroit field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement oversaw the deportation of about 2,300 people to more than 80 countries during the first six months of 2025. Available data indicates these deportations included at least 40 children under 16, the youngest of whom was just 3 or 4 years old.

One Western International student said: “This is so wrong. Children shouldn’t be taken. School is supposed to be a safe place. They were taken by immigration authorities even though they followed the rules. This is kidnapping. Kids should be able to go to school without worrying whether ICE will take them.”

High school students across the U.S. are outraged by the violent raids against their classmates. Last week, more than 56,000 students across parts of North Carolina walked out or skipped school in protest against the presence of immigration officers.

Students at Western International also refused to attend school in March in protest of the migrant deportations.

A teacher at Western International explained that at first the school brochures simply stated that the students were “missing.”

“We just thought they were missing,” she said. “Everyone assumed a criminal had taken them. Then we learned it was immigration officers who did it.”