Immigrants' Right to Education

On Feb. 9, the school board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) unanimously voted to prevent federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from entering school campuses without clearance from the superintendent and the district lawyers. This change will encourage concerned family members to take their children to school.

Earlier this month, ICE agents detained a few Central American families throughout the United States, none of which lived in Los Angeles. However, the board believed that by formally creating a plan to “provide resources and information for undocumented and mixed-status families, including ‘a rapid response network to assist children whose family members have been detained,’” they could prevent a situation that would put families in jeopardy.

The board members discussed how students were not in any danger previously because “ICE considers schools and churches to be ‘sensitive,’” said Sonali Kohli, a writer from the Los Angeles Times. However, it was evident that families did not trust the word of the immigration agency. In the end, the possible threat was enough to prevent family from sending their children to school.

Thankfully, this change implemented by the board will have an actual impact in moving people's lives forward.

In late 2015, the board approved a resolution expressing solidarity with President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration reform. “We continue to welcome all children regardless of citizenship, and we will prepare to assist our families that can benefit from President Obama’s executive action on immigration. This action is one step forward for some of our families that live in fear—but our district demands more from Congress to fix our broken immigration system now,” board member Monica García said.

Another main concern for families is the risk of separation of the child from the family. It would seem that by sending the child to school, it would compromise the situation of the child. The stress of the possibility of deportation does not stop with the parents.

“It’s important for schools to train teachers and staff to educate parents on their immigrant rights because the home environment affects children’s school performance,” said Victoria Dominguez, the Education Services and Policy Coordinator for the nonprofit immigrant rights organization CARECEN. If the parents are left in the dark, they obviously will not be capable of informing the child of their situation, and the stress and fear would only grow.

I believe that the board made the right decision in standing behind Obama’s statement, and by passing this action of officially preventing ICE agents from campuses, students will be able to focus on their education. Although this is not a perfect solution, at least children will get the education they need at an early age to progress further in life.

With all of the excessive hatred in Donald Trump’s campaign towards immigrants, especially from Mexico, it’s difficult to have a civilized debate against Trump. Thankfully, this change implemented by the board will have an actual impact in moving people’s lives forward. Instead of fighting back, they focused on the needs of their students and the families, and this step will hopefully be successful in the long term.

With about 650,000 students enrolled in over 1,000 schools, LAUSD is the second largest school district in the nation, right behind the School District of the City of New York. In the 2010 census, nearly 48 percent of the Los Angeles County was recorded as Hispanic/Latino. With such a large percentage of the school district composed of students who are part of a group that is specifically targeted by ICE agents, it’s extremely important that the board established that their main purpose is to educate all children.

As someone who attended schools in the LAUSD from kindergarten through sixth grade, I noticed the diversity of backgrounds of all the students. After moving to Manhattan Beach, there was a large shift from a school of predominantly black and Mexican students to a majority of white students. Exeter is full of people with unique backgrounds, and sometimes, we forget that our differences stem from how we were raised and taught.

I will never know the exact experiences of friends back home, but I hope that I can continue to learn by talking to them about these issues while I’m here. It’s simpler to just like a trending article on Facebook and to go on my way through the rest of the day, but realizing the situations and creating that proximity inside and outside our Exeter community is a factor of developing an open-minded mentality.

I sometimes find myself easily disengaging from the realities of my life back home. It only takes calling friends from home to remember why it’s important to care about the little changes. Events that happen at home but don’t affect me at Exeter can and do make a huge impact on someone else’s life.