Conclusion

This project demonstrates that immigration enforcement has profound implications for school attendance and, by extension, student well-being in immigrant-dense neighborhoods. The sharp escalation in ICE arrests in early and mid-2025 including the coordinated operations around the Home Depot and Fashion District’s Ambiance Apparel created a climate of fear that likely influenced family decisions around school attendance. While descriptive and contextual this analysis reveals notable increases in excused absences across schools near the raid sites, reflecting patterns documented in previous research linking raids to school disengagement, emotional distress, and disrupted routines.

Although limited by the granularity of available school data, the project provides a meaningful and timely contribution to understanding how immigration enforcement reverberates through educational environments. It lays the groundwork for more precise future research and offers evidence relevant to policy discussions around the protection of school communities during periods of enforcement surges. Ultimately, the findings underscore that immigration policy is not merely a legal or political issue, it is an educational and developmental one, with real consequences for children’s safety, stability, and long-term opportunities.

About the Author

Pilar de Haro is a data analyst and researcher specializing in statistical modeling, geospatial analysis, and data-driven storytelling across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as a Graduate Researcher with the SDSU Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, where she analyzes multi-source regional datasets using Python, SPSS, and SQL to uncover social and environmental patterns across border-region communities.

Previously, Pilar worked as a Marketing Analyst at Planet Art, where she developed GA4, BigQuery, and Tableau dashboards to monitor digital performance metrics and conducted A/B tests that optimized customer journeys and strengthened acquisition strategies. Her background also includes extensive experience as a Support Engineer with the Tiny News Collective, where she guided more than 20 early-stage news organizations in understanding behavioral analytics, improving user engagement, and managing CMS migrations through API-driven workflows.

Earlier in her career, Pilar served as a Business Analyst at Sony Pictures Entertainment, supporting enterprise-tool implementations, compliance tracking, and cross-department reporting for initiatives tied to Adobe Sign, iManage, and CCPA/GDPR readiness. She also gained experience in data journalism through internships with the Motion Picture Industry and Inewsource, where she built SQL-based reporting pipelines and visualizations examining trends in content performance and wage-theft enforcement.

Pilar holds a Master of Science in Big Data Analytics from San Diego State University, where her graduate work included machine-learning projects using Elastic Net, Random Forest, and XGBoost to forecast Yelp restaurant ratings. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a minor in Spanish-language Journalism from California State University, Northridge.

She is also a STEM Advantage mentor and a Tier 1 Awardee in the SANS BootUp Capture-the-Flag competition, recognized for excellence in hands-on cybersecurity and threat-analysis training.