(CNN) — Jennifer Cortez stood outside an elementary and middle school in East Los Angeles, carrying a sign while greeting her students and their families on the first day of classes.

“This is a safe space for immigrants,” the teacher’s red sign with white and yellow lettering said.

As summer comes to an end, more than 500,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest district, began a new school year Thursday with concerns and fear amid the ongoing immigration raids , and only a few days after a 15-year-old boy was detained outside one of the district’s high schools.

Parents like Anna Bermudez and her husband arrived at Brooklyn Avenue School with their children and noticed many parents were absent compared to previous years.

“It sucks, and

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