SAN JOSE — Rumors that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is rounding up undocumented residents throughout the Bay Area are just that — rumors, according to a spokesman for the federal agency.

One of those rumors resulted in an “urgent notification” Tuesday to parents of students at a charter school in San Jose, said James Schwab, a spokesman for the federal agency.

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Immigrants become citizens, illustrating democracy at work The claim that ICE officers were conducting enforcement activities on or near school grounds was “entirely false,” he said in a statement.

Similar rumors have circulated in El Cerrito, Oakland, Richmond and San Pablo. All of them have been false, Schwab said.

“Baseless reports like this create mass panic and put communities and law enforcement in unnecessary danger,” he said. “Individuals or groups that disseminate erroneous and uncorroborated information are doing a disservice to those they are purporting to assist.”

There is “widespread anxiety regarding potential changes to immigration policy,” according to Alex Leung, director of finance and operations at Instawork, which has teamed up with Oakland-based attorney Veronica Guinto to offer bilingual presentations explaining, among other things, President Trump’s executive orders and immigration law enforcement. Instawork is a website and mobile app that connects job seekers to hospitality businesses.

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In a Facebook post, Prerna Lal, an immigration attorney for the East Bay Community Law Center, said ICE does not set up checkpoints.

“There aren’t enough agents for these random raids,” Lal said. “Usually, it is law enforcement, looking for drunk drivers.”

Lal said the American Immigration and Lawyers Association is collecting confirmed reports of raids and roundups at www.aila.org/advo-media/agency-liaison/case-examples/report-raids-and-enforcement-actions-to-aila.

Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report.