According to two senators who spoke with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after the incidents, US Department of Homeland Security agents who attempted to enter two Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools falsely told school staff that they had permission from the students’ families to speak with them.

“When we spoke, we informed you that reports indicated that, while attempting to enter the schools, HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] officers falsely told school staff that they had received permission from the families to speak with their children,” said Sens. Alex Padilla, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Border Security and Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff in an April 18 letter to Robert Hammer, HSI acting executive associate director.

“You informed us that you were unfamiliar with those details and would look into the matter,” the California Democrats wrote. “We would like to understand what steps you are taking to review and address your agents’ conduct, including determining why they said they received permission to speak with children from their families when that was not the case.”

Padilla and Schiff have both publicly expressed their displeasure at the April 7 ICE presence on LAUSD school premises.

Their letter was prompted by immigration enforcement officials attempting to infiltrate LAUSD’s Russell Elementary School and Lillian Street Elementary School. The agents were sent away after administrators consulted with district leadership and legal counsel. DHS stated that the officers left “without incident” when school officials declined to divulge information about the students without a court order or warrant.

“This had nothing to do with immigration enforcement,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, told K-12 Dive on April 11. According to McLaughlin, the purpose of the inspection is to protect unaccompanied minors from exploitation, abuse, and sex trafficking at the border.

The senators’ letter stated that ICE’s attempted “welfare checks” were aimed at minors in grades 1-6. The agents attempted to locate the children during the school day without a warrant and “apparently without contacting or coordinating in advance with the schools, parents or guardians, or state or local child welfare agencies,” Padilla and Schiff wrote following a meeting with HSI, an ICE branch.

“Though the agents were purportedly there to conduct a ‘welfare check’ on the children, their actions instead terrorized hundreds of thousands of students across Los Angeles and undermine public trust,” stated the authors.

The senators requested that the agency respond to their queries about the incident by May 2. They also requested an end to “any efforts to conduct ‘welfare checks’ on school premises” and assurance that ICE officials would not visit or enter schools without a warrant.

The incidents are the first recorded attempts by ICE to enter school grounds following a change in DHS policy under the Trump administration, which allows immigration raids at schools. Previously, schools, hospitals, and churches were deemed off-limits. That changed the day following Trump’s inauguration, and since then, school officials have reported heightened worry among affected pupils over the policy shift.

According to a complaint filed by Denver Public Schools in February, the DHS shift caused attendance to decline “noticeably” across all of its schools, jeopardizing the district’s ability to offer education and other services to children who the district claims are missing school due to fear. The case is proceeding in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for April 30.