Students and staff at Hulsing Elementary School in Canton Township spent just over an hour sheltered inside their building Tuesday morning after federal immigration enforcement activity broke out near campus, with Canton police working alongside school staff to keep everyone secured until the situation cleared without incident.
The shelter-in-place began around 10 a.m. at Hulsing Elementary, located between Morton Taylor Road and Lilley Road south of Joy Road, according to WXYZ 7 News Detroit. Canton police said the lockdown lasted just over an hour and ended without incident, but confirmed that neither the police department nor the school district had advance knowledge of the ICE enforcement activity that prompted it.
U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell said in a tweet Tuesday that she was in contact with ICE, and that the agency reported there were issues with the enforcement activities. She said she would continue working with ICE, the township supervisor, and other relevant parties to address the concerns, the station's report notes. It remains unclear who ICE was targeting near the school or whether any arrests occurred in the immediate vicinity of the campus.
A Policy Shift That Opened the Door
Tuesday's incident unfolded against a federal policy backdrop that has changed dramatically since early last year. On January 20, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded longstanding guidance that had restricted ICE from conducting enforcement operations at or near sensitive locations such as K-12 schools, hospitals, and places of worship, according to the National Immigration Law Center. The guidance had existed for decades and was expanded in 2021.
Even with that shift, legal limits remain on what ICE agents can do once they reach school grounds. Per the ILRC, while agents can now access publicly available school spaces, they still need authorization from school personnel or a valid judicial warrant to enter non-public areas like classrooms, offices, and hallways.
Familiar Friction in Canton Township
This is not the first time ICE activity near Canton has drawn sharp local pushback. In April 2025, Dingell publicly condemned the agency after federal agents mistakenly tackled and handcuffed a U.S. citizen outside the 35th District Court serving Canton and Plymouth, where the man was supporting an immigrant who had appeared for a traffic violation, according to the Office of Representative Debbie Dingell. Dingell later voted against DHS funding, citing concerns over ICE enforcement tactics and demanding mandatory body cameras and judicial warrants.
Tension over ICE's footprint in the region has continued to build since then. In February, Metro Detroit elected officials, including Dingell, held a joint press conference opposing ICE's acquisition of a warehouse facility in neighboring Romulus intended to expand regional detention capacity, with community leaders arguing the site removed property meant for local automotive manufacturing jobs, per Michigan Public.
Push for Statutory Protections Continues
Efforts to restore formal school-zone protections have stalled at the federal level even as lawmakers keep trying. Federal legislators reintroduced the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act during the 119th Congress in 2025, which would statutorily prohibit ICE enforcement within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, and healthcare facilities and mandate supervisory approval along with strict exigent exceptions, according to Global Refuge.
Some states aren't waiting on Congress. In response to the federal policy shifts, legislatures in Minnesota and Pennsylvania introduced bills that would bar local public school staff from consenting to warrantless federal immigration enforcement on campus, requiring officers to present valid judicial warrants before gaining access to non-public areas, according to the Minnesota House of Representatives DFL Caucus. Those proposals would establish state-level protections for school campuses.
For now, families in Canton Township are left with the same open questions that followed Tuesday's shelter-in-place: who ICE was pursuing near Hulsing Elementary, whether anyone was arrested close to the school, and what formal coordination Plymouth-Canton Community Schools will now seek from federal authorities.
