{"id":452531,"date":"2026-09-30T22:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452531\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T22:30:07","slug":"texas-lost-at-least-14200-immigrant-students-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452531\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas lost at least 14,200 immigrant students last year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas public schools lost more than 14,200 immigrant students<\/a> last school year amid aggressive immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump, state data shows.<\/p>\n

However, multiple immigration experts said schools likely saw a much larger drop in such students than indicated in official reports as the publicly available data only includes children who meet a specific definition of immigrant<\/a> under the law.<\/p>\n

The decline reflects a 7% drop in enrollment for the state\u2019s immigrant students, the first since the pandemic. Texas identifies immigrant students as children who were not born in the U.S. and have not been attending school in any state for more than three full academic years. <\/p>\n

Texas reported 179,423 immigrant students in the 2025-26 year with enrollment declines generally concentrated in large, urban districts. <\/p>\n

The specific cause of the decline is unclear, but it comes as Trump promises the \u201cthe largest mass deportation effort by the federal government in U.S. history\u201d during his second term. Soon after he took office, his administration rescinded a policy on restricting immigration enforcement in protected areas, including schools. <\/p>\n

The number of monthly immigration-related arrests in Texas has skyrocketed since January 2025, according to the Deportation Data Project<\/a>. Based on anecdotes from families, administrators from multiple districts, including Houston and Austin, have attributed much of their overall enrollment declines to an increase in deportations or fears of immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that some of the immigration changes at the federal level were going to continue to have impacts in our schools, and they are,\u201d AISD Superintendent Matias Segura said last week at The Texas Tribune Festival<\/a>. \u201cWhen you look at where we\u2019re seeing students leave Austin ISD, you\u2019re seeing them a lot in these areas where there is that (enforcement) activity, which is disheartening for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas provides schools state funding largely based on student attendance, meaning the loss of immigrant children resulted in tens of millions of dollars less for districts already grappling with broader enrollment declines, budget shortfalls, school closures, and staff cuts.<\/p>\n

School districts identify children who meet the federal definition of immigrant students, but they do not ask for a students\u2019 immigration or citizenship status. Those who are undocumented but have lived in Texas for years would not necessarily count as immigrant students.<\/p>\n

Esmeralda Alday, the senior director of programs and impact at ImmSchools, an organization advocating for immigrant students and their families, said it was already a challenge for districts to ensure those children were attending school. That work now is exacerbated due to the increased immigration enforcement, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have families that don\u2019t want to send their kids to school,\u201d Alday said. \u201cYou have families that are self-deporting every day. You have parents being detained, and older students having to drop out of school to start working.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do not \u201ctarget schools\u201d and people who are living in the U.S. legally and are not breaking other laws have \u201cnothing to fear,\u201d according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n

Deportation officers have mostly arrested<\/a> people with no criminal convictions, federal government data shows. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another false narrative to try and demonize our brave ICE law enforcement who are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Several large school districts, including Austin, Frisco, Fort Worth, Katy and Houston, reported overall enrollment declines last year, including higher percentage declines in immigrant students than the statewide average, Texas Education Agency data shows.<\/p>\n

Houston ISD, for example, lost 22% of its immigrant students in one year. The state\u2019s largest school district also announced the closure of Las Americas Newcomer School, an alternative campus serving new arrivals to the U.S., in the 2025-26 school year, citing low enrollment. Officials from the district did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The loss of students due to \u201cinhumane immigration enforcement tactics\u201d will result in a decline in civic engagement, less cultural and social diversity in schools, and damage to the state\u2019s economy and workforce, said Paige Duggins-Clay, the chief legal analyst for the nonprofit Intercultural Development Research Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to just losing the student themselves and what they represent in terms of funding, they really are so much more. They are wonderful human beings, worthy of education and worthy of being in a community,\u201d Duggins-Clay said. \u201cWe are, I think, alienating and isolating a really valuable part of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the number of students in Texas public schools dropped by approximately 1.4% last year \u2014 their first non-pandemic statewide enrollment decline in nearly 40 years, according to analysis from policy research group Texas 2036<\/a>. The state\u2019s schools lost more than 76,600 students, most of whom were Hispanic and emergent bilingual students. <\/p>\n

Marguerite Roza, the director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, said increased immigration was offsetting the declining birth rate for some districts in Texas, but that appears to no longer be the case. While the state\u2019s fertility rate<\/a> is higher than the national average, Census data shows it has fallen steadily for nearly two decades, mirroring national trends. <\/p>\n

Bob Templeton, who studies Texas\u2019 education demographics, told lawmakers in May that enrollment could drop by roughly 500,000 students in the next four to five years. More than 5,460,000 children are enrolled in public schools and charter networks as of the 2025-26 year. Enrollment data for this school year is not yet available as the state measures that on a single day in October.<\/p>\n

Under the Plyer v. Doe U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1982, K-12 schools are required to provide a free education to children regardless of their immigration status. <\/p>\n

Alday, whose group works across Texas, said it\u2019s important for immigrant children to attend school so they can learn how to read and write in English. However, she said the increase in ICE arrests make many families afraid to send their children to class, which hinders their ability to develop those skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what this country has been,\u201d Alday said. \u201cAs complicated as this country\u2019s history has been, immigrants have been able to contribute, even in Texas. We\u2019re taking every opportunity from these students and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few urban Texas school districts reported that their immigrant student populations bucked broader statewide trends and continue to increase. <\/p>\n

The San Antonio-based Northside school district, for example, reported a 9% increase in immigrant students last school year.<\/p>\n

Ericka Dillon, Northside ISD\u2019s director of bilingual and ESL education, said several factors led to the increase, including a surge in Afghan resettlement and migration from Venezuela. <\/p>\n

Dillon said the state\u2019s fourth largest school district also has multiple initiatives to welcome and support immigrant students, including expansion of English as a Second Language, dual language and newcomer support programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cNorthside ISD is proud to be a welcoming, high-quality public education system that serves families from all over the world who choose to make San Antonio their home,\u201d Dillon said in a statement. \u201cThe growth \u2026 reflects both broader global resettlement patterns and Northside ISD\u2019s reputation as a supportive, resource-rich community for diverse families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas 2036 has been a major financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas public schools lost more than 14,200 immigrant students last school year amid aggressive immigration enforcement under President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1685,1686,1724,3647,11538,27,2810,29,28,11362],"class_list":["post-452531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin-isd","tag-houston-isd","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-state-agencies","tag-texas","tag-texas-education-agency","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-public-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}