Supporters testify for bill requiring warrant for immigration officers at schools
By Jolie Peal 
, Reporter Nebraska Public Media News
17 de Febrero de 2026 a las 18:00 ·
The Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee heard mainly support for a bill requiring immigration officers to have a judicial warrant before administrators allow them onto school grounds.
State Sen. George Dungan introduced the bill, saying it’s meant to give school administrators some clarity, especially those who may not know what to do when federal agents show up. He said it also protects students.
“We want to make sure kids go to school. We want to make sure that when they're in school, they're able to learn,” Dungan said. “I think that LB1034 seeks to achieve that goal by creating a backstop, while balancing that with local control.”
President Donald Trump’s administration took away immigration enforcement protections for schools and churches last year. Several other states, including Maryland and California, have put laws in place to help schools with immigration officials.
Alyssa Capek, a student at Crete Public Schools who supports the bill, said her classmates are scared. Crete’s student population last school year was 63% Hispanic.
“This fear does not only affect Hispanic students, but other minority groups as well, such as my best friend who's Native American, having to keep her certificate of Indian blood and official tribe ID in her backpack in case she were questioned or searched,” Capek said. “No student should feel this burden.”
Kathy Poehling, the president of the Omaha Education Association, shared a story of students being scared to go home from school following an ICE raid and find their parents gone.
“One boy told me he had to hide under the floorboards when people knocked on his door,” she said. “I was horrified, and I stayed until at least six o'clock that night, calling every parent, making sure they were home before their student went home, driving them home if their parents didn't answer, making sure that somebody was there waiting for them.”
Maria Arriaga, executive director for the Nebraska Commission of Latino-Americans, said the commission holds a Latino youth summit every year and asks students what they want to know about in an exit survey. It was all questions about ICE and immigration.
“These were not isolated comments,” Arriaga said. “We received a ton of them. We have over 600 students in our event, and they were consistent across grade levels. When educational aspiration is replaced by questions about survival and safety, that is a signal we cannot ignore.”
Arriaga said school policies in response to immigration officials differ from one district to another, and some districts have no policy. She said this bill would standardize those policies and give parents peace of mind.
Proponents of the bill also pointed to the immigration enforcement in Minnesota, and its impact on schools.
Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said he had the chance to hear from Minnesota educators while in Washington, D.C. for a meeting with educators across the country. There were stories about staff being detained for questioning why ICE agents were at their school and educators being taken from their cars on suspicion of being undocumented.
“In one particular incident, a teacher literally had their passport with them in the car, and agents did not permit him to grab it,” Royers said. “Not only did they refuse him access to an attorney when he was detained for several hours, they did not even let him notify the school that he was being detained, simply so he could arrange a substitute teacher so there would be an adult in the classroom while he was being detained for who knows for how long.”
Spike Eickholt, speaking for the ACLU of Nebraska in support of LB1034, explained that a judicial warrant is signed by a judge, showing factual and legal basis for the warrant. Eickholt also said all have a right to a free education under the constitution.
“That's been the law as interpreted by our court for over 100 years,” Eickholt said. “Children have a right to education in Nebraska, regardless of their immigration status. As you heard before, school should be a safe place for those children.”
No opponents spoke at the hearing, and one person spoke in a neutral capacity. For written testimony, there were 188 proponents and 27 opponents.
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