In late January, amid reports that ICE would ramp up actions in Baltimore and growing outrage over conditions at a downtown ICE jail, staff at the Walters Art Museum received guidance outlining what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at the building.
Much of the one-page guidance is spent instructing staff to not interfere with ICE actions.
“If an ICE officer arrives at the museum and identifies themselves, staff should remain calm and direct the officer to the Security Supervisor on duty,” the guidance explains. “ICE officers are not required to identify themselves or have a warrant to access public spaces. ICE is not required to wait. Do not interfere if they refuse to wait.”
That guidance raised concerns about whether the institution would assert its legal protections if agents appeared. Under the Fourth Amendment, immigration agents may enter public areas but need a judicial warrant to access private spaces. Institutions can refuse entry to nonpublic areas without one. Legal toolkits published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Immigration Law Center, and 4th Amendment Workplaces emphasize designating private spaces clearly, training staff not to consent to searches, and documenting encounters.
”I think the feeling that was prevalent was that the museum was going to capitulate to ICE if they ever came here,” said one Walters employee, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “I didn’t want to be complicit in that.”
Baltimore Beat spoke to a number of service workers, teachers, nurses, and business owners across Baltimore who fear being caught up in raids and detentions that courts have found routinely violate constitutional protections.
As news blog Project Saltbox has reported, federal immigration enforcement is poised to expand in Baltimore. Schools, hospitals, and cultural institutions across the city are confronting a question many hoped they would not have to answer: What happens if ICE walks through the door?
“Failing to hold the line against fascism and authoritarianism only ensures more harm,” said Matt Parsons, a community lawyer at Baltimore Action Legal Team. “You can’t assume putting your head down will prevent confrontation.”
Written guidance is only meaningful if workers are trained to assert those rights in real time, Parsons explained. “You have to know how to invoke your rights for them to even be effective.”
Parsons reviewed the Walters Art Museum’s guidance and said it focused on restricting rather than empowering their workers by helping them understand and assert their rights. “The framing of this document is based on compliance,” Parsons said. “It isn’t about protecting the rights of community members who may be impacted.”
In a statement to the Beat, the Walters Art Museum said it has trained staff to respond to ICE presence “appropriately and consistently” in compliance with federal, state, and local law and remains committed to serving the community.
The anonymous Walters employee said their concern was less about the policy itself and more about how it was communicated — and what it signaled about the museum’s stance.
“It took a lot of time and prodding to get the museum to actually tell us what was going on instead of being transparent from the beginning,” the employee said. “It feels antithetical to the theme that as we are a museum that wants to serve the Baltimore community and that allowing ICE to enter would endanger our community.”
Since the passage of President Donald Trump’s budget last July, ICE has used $75 billion in new federal funding to expand operations in nearly every state, targeting communities with large immigrant populations such as Southern California, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, and has deported more than half a million people over the past year. While the Trump administration has said it is targeting the “worst of the worst,” a report by libertarian think tank the CATO Institute found that only 5% of detainees had violent convictions. Enforcement actions have swept up thousands of children, legal residents, asylum seekers, and even U.S. citizens.
ICE agents in Oregon, speaking under oath in a federal lawsuit challenging the agency’s practice of detaining people without warrants or probable cause, said they were given daily arrest quotas and used a surveillance app to identify people and neighborhoods to target. A former employee at Baltimore’s ICE detention facility recently described conditions inside to WUSA9. “I saw people laying in feces. People throwing up, people laying in urine,” they said.
The Trump administration has also ramped up workplace raids and revoked long-standing protections for “sensitive” areas including hospitals, places of worship, and schools, which have been particularly impacted.
ICE’s tactics have left business owners and workers reluctant to speak openly — many who spoke to the Beat requested anonymity, worried that public statements could make them targets.
One Baltimore business owner who employs a predominantly immigrant workforce and spoke on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns said their workplace has taken steps to prepare in anticipation of a significant escalation of enforcement in coming months. The concern is rooted in seeing the effects of high-profile raids across the city last year, including over a dozen arrests at grocery stores, convenience shops, restaurants, and a Home Depot.
“It’s really hard and feels pretty shitty, honestly, to be running a workplace where you can’t guarantee people’s safety but financially can’t offer a better alternative,” one business owner said.
“It’s really hard and feels pretty shitty, honestly, to be running a workplace where you can’t guarantee people’s safety but financially can’t offer a better alternative,” the owner said.
A lawyer conducted a know-your-rights training for staff, workers were given a legal hotline number, and managers now send daily reminders on how to respond if agents enter the building. The business has also begun organizing carpools for employees concerned about traveling alone.
“We’ve told the team we’d provide financial support for any legal, bond, or bail fees,” the owner said.
They said fears of immigration enforcement and concern that organizing could draw attention from ICE have made it difficult for businesses to work together openly to protect their immigrant staff. “I haven’t seen too much coordination or communication,” they said, adding they have been trying to find ways to connect “without raising any attention.”
Other business owners who spoke with the Beat said they’ve taken similar steps to prepare for the possibility of increased immigration enforcement, including legal training, posting signage designating private spaces, and hosting community conversations about how neighbors can respond collectively.
Parsons told the Beat that institutions should prepare staff to carefully review any warrant presented by ICE, confirm it is a judicial warrant signed by a court, and ensure agents remain within its scope. “You want to make sure they stay within the scope of that warrant,” he said. “If they try to go outside of it, you need to be proactive in saying you do not consent.”
He also encouraged staff to document enforcement actions by recording video or taking written notes focused on agents’ conduct.
Baltimore City schools have not been immune to these effects either, as educators report similar disruptions driven by fear of immigration enforcement. Across the country, immigration agents have detained parents near bus stops and carried out enforcement activity near school grounds. In St. Paul, Minnesota, about one in four public school students shifted to virtual learning during a surge in enforcement activity, according to education news organization Chalkbeat.
“E,” a Baltimore City Schools teacher who spoke to the Beat on condition of anonymity, said attendance dropped last winter: “Last January was really rough. Our attendance was terrible due to growing fears in the community. Rumors about ICE presence were spreading like crazy,” the teacher said.
The teacher said those fears were not limited to one school, but reflect a broader pattern across the district.
“Kids come to school every day carrying the weight of the world or private family things into the classroom,” said Ashley Esposito, an elected, at-large member of the City Schools Board. “I don’t think we fully understand how many students may have lost someone in their household or a close family member to deportation.”
“I think people have been deeply impacted, and I don’t think we have a clear understanding of how impacted,” added Ashley Esposito, an elected, at-large member of the City Schools Board. “Kids come to school every day carrying the weight of the world or private family things into the classroom.”
“I don’t think we fully understand how many students may have lost someone in their household or a close family member to deportation,” she said.
City Schools guidance instructs staff to refer immigration agents to the principal or designated administrator and to not answer questions or grant access to classrooms and other nonpublic areas of the school while the district’s Office of Legal Counsel reviews the request.
E said they recently attended a training organized by the teachers’ union and CASA, a leading immigrant advocacy organization, where it became clear that not all staff members were aware of the district’s guidance.
“My principal has done an incredible job making sure the entire staff is aware of the policies and procedures so that they can be enforced correctly,” the teacher said. “However, I don’t think this is the case at every school. I think a lot of teachers are in the dark and understandably very scared and confused.”
Esposito said some schools have stepped in to support families, but that approach is not consistent citywide. “We have school leaders who are deeply involved with their communities and have been able to support families — whether that’s giving parents and students space to talk about what’s going on or finding ways to support families during this time,” she said. “I think there are lessons there that we could expand on to ensure that all schools are operating at that same level.”
Centering policies around community defense can rebuild trust in institutions.
In one Minnesota elementary school, more than 50 students — a significant share of the school’s population — failed to return after winter break amid heightened ICE operations, according to Greater Good Magazine, a UC Berkeley-based publication that translates research on well-being into practical insights. Attendance rebounded only after school leaders organized a structured response: staff and volunteers escorted students from their homes to bus stops, stationed adults at pickup points and, in some cases, drove children directly to school. Within weeks, absences dropped from more than 50 students to seven.
Advocates say workplaces have a responsibility to ground their policies in defending the communities they serve — not simply complying with enforcement. And many are still searching for ways to support their neighbors in the face of increased enforcement.
“I think North Ave’s policies go far enough to protect our students and their families while they are in our building,” the teacher said. “Unfortunately, so much is out of our control once students leave.”
“We are doing our best to support students and their families that have been impacted by raids or deportations — providing mental health support, connecting families with community resources and crowd sourcing necessary funds — but we only have so much capacity.”