Pittsburgh-area schools today felt reverberations from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In Wilkinsburg, reports of an arrest alarmed residents and parents and drew observers to schools. In Squirrel Hill, concern with perceived ICE activity led to a student protest that flowed down the neighborhood’s business district.
The federal Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, has said that the immigration enforcement agency does not “raid” schools, though it has issued a “directive allowing ICE to go into schools” with “discretion.” The National Education Association, though, has said that ICE activity involving schools has “terrorized students and families” and the teacher’s union has filed a motion in federal court to stop the practice.
Slideshow: About 250 Allderdice High School students chanted and pointed their signs towards traffic on Murray Avenue after they walked out of class to protest ICE’s recent actions nationwide and in Pittsburgh, Feb. 18, in Squirrel Hill. The group gathered peacefully at the nearby GetGo and returned to demonstrate on the school lawn before dismissal. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Allderdice: ‘A lot of passion’
Around 250 Pittsburgh Allderdice High students, reacting to apparently false rumors of an early-February ICE approach to the school in Squirrel Hill North, walked out early around 1 p.m. and marched down Forward Avenue toward Murray Avenue. Students coalesced in a parking lot near Starbucks, overflowing into the gas station nearby. At least three Pittsburgh police cruisers were on the scene. Officers observed but did not intervene.
A freshman student, who asked not to be named, told Pittsburgh’s Public Source that she did not help organize the protest, but that a recent report of ICE activity around the school, coupled with an ICE-related walkout at Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 roughly two weeks ago, likely drove the walkout.
“There are definitely some people who are here to just get out of school,” she said. As she looked around at the crowd of fellow students who had gathered outside of the gas station, she added, “But there’s a lot of passion.”
At certain points in the walkout, grandmother Ingrid Eubanks led the line of students with a megaphone in hand and dressed in green — the school colors, she noted — directing the students to stay on the sidewalks. She said that her granddaughter and two other freshman students organized the protest, and that they asked if she could help out with “crowd control.”
She told Public Source that her granddaughter and her classmates have created a diverse group of friends, and oppose the immigration crackdown. “They’re not just being stripped of someone from another ethnicity or nationality, they’re being stripped away of somebody that they love,” Eubanks said.
Addy Lord arrived at the scene of the protest along with a few neighbors of the school soon after students started making their way down the high school’s steps. They carried around a bag of whistles from Frontline Dignity to pass out to students. “I think that young people taking a stand is an incredibly important part of resisting fascism,” said Lord.
Ashley Comans, vice president of the Wilkinsburg School District board, picks up her children from Kelly Primary School as volunteers from Frontline Dignity, the school board, and CURE Violence East talk together outside the school, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Wilkinsburg. Comans was involved in organizing a response for neighbors, violence interrupters, and advocacy organizations to be present at school pickup after reports of potential ICE presence in the area began to circulate that morning. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Wilkinsburg: ‘Trying to just quickly organize’
Ashley Comans, the vice president of the Wilkinsburg School District board, said she dropped her kids off at Kelly Primary School this morning and received communications alerting her of ICE being in the area. She heard that other parents had seen ICE at a school bus stop and picking up a young person. Reports and video of a purported arrest circulated on social media.
“It was a moment of, ‘okay, it’s here,’” she said. She said that she’s been in contact with organizers in Minnesota. She noted that there are parts of the Wilkinsburg community that aren’t heavily populated. It’s easy for immigration enforcement officers to “get away with it,” she said.
Comans, the wife of borough Mayor Dante Comans, said talk of the arrest spread quickly and prompted calls to advocacy organizations Casa San José and Frontline Dignity, plus spontaneous neighborhood action. “We’re trying to just quickly organize so that we protect our community,” she said, by sharing information on people’s rights when approached by agents.
Frontline Dignity had 15 volunteers each at Turner, Kelly and Pittsburgh Westinghouse Academy 6-12, in response to calls received about ICE activity. Wilkinsburg’s high school-age students go to Westinghouse, part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Comans returned to Kelly Primary in the afternoon to pick up her daughter and son. She told volunteer observers, mostly affiliated with Frontline Dignity, that there was a desire to have volunteers out at area schools for the remainder of the week “because it’s not going to stop.”
District Superintendent Jocelyn Artinger said in an email that the interaction did not involve a Wilkinsburg student, to the best of her knowledge. The district later issued a statement saying it was aware of “possible” ICE activity in the community, but did not place schools on lockdown. The statement said no federal agents entered its schools, which have “established strict protocols regarding who may enter our facilities,” including exclusion of ICE agents “without a valid judicial warrant.”
Public Source asked ICE spokesperson Jason Koontz for details of any arrest in Wilkinsburg, and he did not immediately respond.
Suburban responses and absenteeism concerns
Suburban schools are also responding to the immigration crackdown. On Tuesday, the Allegheny Valley School District board began consideration of a policy meant to keep ICE agents off of its property. Riverview School District’s board passed a new student and staff safety policy last week. Those actions were largely in response to ICE arrests in Springdale and Oakmont boroughs.
Some education experts warn of an increase in chronic absenteeism because of fears of ICE around schools.
James Fogarty, executive director of A+ Schools, a nonprofit that focuses on reducing chronic absenteeism in Pittsburgh, said he has seen an uptick in absenteeism in schools with higher populations of English learners that might have been caused by more visibility of ICE.
He said he has detected “a lot of questions around the current legal environment that creates uncertainty for families.”
Hetal Dhagat, an attorney with the Education Law Center, said she has seen increased reports of families being fearful of sending their kids to school this year based on rumors or actual ICE presence in communities. She said all schools should have protocols about what would happen if ICE agents were attempting to enter the school and should try to dispel circulating rumors.
Mia Hollie is the economic development reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.
Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.
DS Fleegle is the audience growth and engagement producer at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at ds@publicsource.org.
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