Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, sparked backlash this week after posting on X that “one in seven” students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) are in the United States illegally. Educators and policy experts say the claim is both misleading and unsupported by evidence.
“There’s no data to support what he’s saying,” said Sara Howell, associate director for policy and research at the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a nonpartisan education think tank. She warned that the statement fuels a damaging narrative. “It’s a pretty harmful narrative to be circulating for a few reasons.”
Absences were used as a proxy — but that doesn’t prove legal status
On Monday, CMS recorded more than 27,000 absences — about 21% of its student population — on the first school day since Border Patrol agents began “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” The Department of Homeland Security has reported more than 250 arrests so far, and community members say enforcement has heavily targeted Latinos.
Other local outlets, using unofficial figures Monday evening, estimated roughly 21,000 students were absent, or about 15% of enrollment. That estimate was cited by WSOC reporter Joe Bruno in a post on X that drew Miller’s response.
“So a conservative estimate is that one-seventh of a major southern public school district is here illegally,” Miller wrote, assuming that every absent student lacked legal status.
But that assumption doesn’t hold up, Howell said. Absenteeism rose sharply only after immigration enforcement began, suggesting fear — not legal status — was driving families to keep children home.
About 9,600 students were absent the previous Monday, before Border Patrol arrived in Charlotte.
“It’s simply not true that 15% of these students are undocumented immigrants,” Howell said. “There are 15% of students, at least, that feel unsafe in their schools.”
Schools can’t track immigration status
Public schools are not permitted to collect immigration status, and they cannot deny enrollment based on documentation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children, regardless of immigration status, have a right to public education.
Because of that, CMS — like other districts — does not know how many undocumented students are enrolled.
The district does track English learner (EL) status, identifying students who speak a language other than English at home. CMS reported 32,891 English learners last year, according to a 2024 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction report, representing roughly 23% of students.
But EL status is not a measure of immigration status, Howell emphasized. Many English learners are U.S.-born, and some speak English fluently.
“It means that they’re a multilingual learner who brings a lot to the school, and they are receiving some kind of support because of that,” she said. “That’s all it means.”
Fear is keeping students home — including U.S. citizens
Families’ anxiety has grown after several high-profile encounters with federal agents. One widely shared incident involved Honduran-born Willy Aceituno, whose car window was smashed on Saturday before he was dragged to the pavement. Aceituno has been a U.S. citizen for six years.
Howell said episodes like that make Latino families — regardless of status — worry they could be stopped or detained based on appearance alone.
“What they are seeing is an environment where folks are being detained and picked up by ICE or CPB simply because they have brown skin,” she said. “They are not always taking the time to look at papers… It’s kind of detain first, ask questions later.”
Erin DeMund, a reading interventionist at Oaklawn Language Academy, said she has watched that fear play out in real time. She reported daily absences this week of 20% to 30% at her school.
On Monday, more than half of one fifth-grade class didn’t show up. Students who were present expressed worry about their families and what they were seeing in their neighborhoods, she said.
“I know there were many students in my school who were born here who were not at school this week,” DeMund said, noting that neither she nor the school tracks immigration status. “Those families have communicated fear about racial profiling. The fear is about racial profiling. The fear is not about immigration status.”
