Imagine our lost immigrant child’s fear as the 11-year-old sixth grader realized no adult would save her. Dunmore police arrived Wednesday, Oct. 29, to take her away from teachers, friends and the safety of her elementary school.

Within minutes local police rushed her into the police station and turned her over to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who prepared her and her father for deportation to Honduras.

“She was upset,” Dunmore School District Superintendent John Marichak said Monday.

To try to ease her fear, Marichak said the school guidance counselor, an assistant principal and a teacher went along as police drove the child to the police station and handed her over to government agents who now controlled her future.

“ICE never showed here (at the school),” Marichak said.

Still, he said, “it was scary.”

Marichak explained that school officials followed a new policy that refuses to allow ICE agents or other immigration officials to remove a child from school without a warrant. The new school policy wasn’t official at the time because school board members had not yet voted on it, he said, but the policy is “up for review” and will be passed.

The policy says “the Dunmore School District is committed to serving as a welcoming environment for all students regardless of immigration status” and “that all children have a constitutional right to an education.”

“We won’t release a child without a warrant,” Marichak said.

Marichak said he doesn’t know if ICE had an administrative or judicial warrant for the girl. The superintendent said he didn’t see the warrant but trusted Dunmore Police Chief Sal Marchese who confirmed the warrant was valid. Before hanging up on me last week, Marchese said it was his “understanding” ICE agents possessed a warrant.

Marichak said Marchese called school officials early Wednesday to tell them about the ICE warrant for the child. Police Chief Marchese curtly told me last week that Dunmore police helped “facilitate” the child’s seizure as a “humanitarian” gesture, a loaded word clearly open to interpretation.

“We were on alert in the morning,” Marichak said, for the “end-of-day” handover.

Word had spread quickly among teachers and maybe even some students by the time Dunmore police arrived at the school, Marichak said. When the child realized police were coming for her is unclear. The girl’s undocumented father was already in custody for missing a federal immigration hearing, and deportation orders were in effect for him and his daughter since 2023 according to a recent ICE press release.

Exactly when teachers talked with their grade-school students about what had happened also is unclear. So is what teachers told their students about why police picked up their classmate and what her future might hold. Had she done something bad? Could her friends call or write her? Would they ever know where she now lives? Is she still alive?

The school guidance counselor stood by to talk with students, Marichak said.

I have not named this child in the four columns I’ve written about her ordeal. She is one of countless nameless, numbered children ICE agents have captured and continue to hunt to send into the darkness of panic and despair.

Dunmore parents should expect ICE to show up again. Increasing numbers of immigrants who are undocumented live in Dunmore, Scranton and elsewhere in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Their children, some of whom are undocumented, count on us to help them learn to live in America. In many ways our future as a nation depends on these families to thrive.

Are parents already afraid to send their children to school? How will Dunmore children feel the next time they see police wearing guns especially at their schools? What will you do if police arrive at school for your child?

“It’s a scary thing,” Marichak said. “It’s scary.”