The morning after immigration agents aggressively pursued a man near Hoover Elementary in West Oakland, many parents dropping their children off at school did so with a sense of anxiety and fear.
Others were defiant, insisting that federal immigration operations won’t disrupt their lives. Many were greeted by volunteer foot patrollers handing out flyers about how to identify Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles in the neighborhood.
As rain battered the streets and sidewalks Thursday morning, Lindsay Imai Hong, a volunteer with the Immigrant Defense Committee, stood just outside Hoover’s fence to warn families about possible ICE activities.
“ICE has been terrorizing families, they’re scared to leave their homes, to go to school, to go grocery shopping,” she told The Oaklandside. “Parents, teachers and neighbors are showing up to support one another and defend members of the community.”
It’s the first known ICE action near a school in Oakland this year. Harriet Tubman preschool, an OUSD childcare center, is a block away.
A crossing guard outside Hoover, who identified herself as Robin, said she hoped parents and families won’t be too affected by the immigration enforcement action.
“Let these kids go to school!” she said. “If kids don’t go to school, they’ll let Donald Trump have the upper hand. They want to make it so these parents do not bring their kids. To make them scared. Don’t let him have the upper hand.”
When a few kids started walking in close to the opening bell, Robin said she felt happy.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” she exclaimed as she got up quickly to wave through some drivers, saying to a couple that she loved them. “Thank god they’re coming. Come on!”
Thirty minutes before the bell rang, there was very little activity on Brockhurst Street, where the school’s main entrance is located. According to a crossing guard posted at the intersection with West Street, many fewer students had been walking there this morning, whether by themselves or with their parents or guardians.
Throughout the morning drop-off, the majority of kids were driven directly to the front entrance of the school, with very few being walked up.
One of the parents who dropped off his child in a black sedan, a Spanish-speaking young man who declined to give his name, said he was a little nervous about doing so this morning.
Another parent, who identified herself as Luisa, dropped off her child by walking her in while also carrying a baby strapped to her chest and holding an umbrella in the falling rain. She told us she felt a little nervous about traveling to the school this morning. She said she was at a doctor’s appointment with her Hoover student when she was notified about the ICE action. Her child, spooked by the situation, asked her mom if she could stay home. But by this morning, both mother and daughter were ready to walk to school.
“Let’s hope to God that nothing happens,” Luisa told us in Spanish.
Not everyone felt a sense of anxiety.
Another parent, who introduced herself as Pamela, said she wasn’t too worried because neither she nor her kid had done anything to elicit a dangerous response from law enforcement, and she had her ID with her. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to do,” by bringing their kids to school, she said in Spanish.
A crossing guard helps a family cross Brockhurst Street near Hoover Elementary on Nov. 20, 2025. Credit: Jose Fermoso/The Oaklandside
A crossing guard recognizes a grandfather
Yesterday’s incident took place early in the morning of Nov. 19, when a group of ICE agents chased a man near the West Oakland school, causing him to crash his car and flee on foot.
The attempted arrest caused Hoover and other nearby Oakland schools to go into “secure protocol,” to protect students and staff in case a larger operation was underway. Later in the day, hundreds of protesters and volunteer monitors gathered along Market Street to keep watch.
The Oakland Police Department confirmed on Wednesday that an “outside law enforcement agency” carried out an operation in Oakland and that the driver they were pursuing crashed into an uninvolved car on the 800 block of 31st Street. OPD confirmed that the department “was not notified” of the operation by the outside agency.
Jacquelyn King, a crossing guard who has monitored the intersection of Market Street and Brockhurst Street for 23 years, was at her station Wednesday morning when she spotted what looked like ICE vehicles parked across the street from the school. She went inside the school to warn staff. She then saw the two SUVs tailing a Dodge Charger as it drove down Market Street, she said.
“I guess he was trying to make it back to his house, I don’t know, but he made a right on 31st and then that’s when he crashed,” King told The Oaklandside. She said she recognized the man as someone who has a grandchild enrolled at the school.
Carroll Fife, the city councilmember for West Oakland, also said that the man targeted was a father or grandfather of someone at the school.
But Lissette Averhoff, Hoover Elementary’s principal, told The Oaklandside that she couldn’t confirm whether the target of the ICE activity was the guardian of a student there.
At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Valarie Bachelor, the board’s vice president, thanked the community for showing up.
“We showed that when we band together, we can keep our students and families safe from masked men with white unmarked vans,” Bachelor said.
Residents of the neighborhood told The Oaklandside they were surprised by what happened but were determined to help in case ICE comes around again.
A resident of 31st Street, who identified herself as Daisy, was out walking her dog this morning. She told us she saw the ICE trucks yesterday. She said that one day later, she was feeling strange, thinking about the law enforcement presence on her street.
“It takes away your sense of safety,” she said.
Darwin BondGraham and Esther Kaplan contributed reporting.
“*” indicates required fields