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Andrea Garza says it’s not unusual or alarming when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are spotted near a school in Laredo, Texas, a border town.

In other parts of the country, “seeing the presence of border patrol would be, you know, different, maybe shocking. Just something from another world, right?” she said. “It’s something very normal here.”

Garza is a school leader with the United Independent School District , which serves Laredo. Federal data shows 94% of her district’s community is Hispanic. Garza said some families have been in Laredo for generations, while others came more recently, and the federal government is one of her area’s largest employers.

She said she knows what she would do if ICE comes knocking: If they don’t have a warrant or subpoena, they don’t get in.

“We serve ‘in loco parentis’ for students,” she said, meaning “in place of a parent” when the students’ rights are challenged.

“It’s not interpreted, in the way we see it, as interfering with the law,” Garza explained. “It is more just verifying that we are all following the law.”

Texas state law prohibits local entities, including campus police, from obstructing federal immigration enforcement. But NPR found no state laws that directly address how much access these officers should have in K-12 public schools.

And it’s not just Texas. Many states lack clear policies governing what these interactions should look like. Recent federal changes haven’t helped.

At the beginning of President Trump’s second term, the administration rescinded a policy that protected schools, among other “sensitive” places, from immigration enforcement.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said at the time. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”