Equity & Diversity

Good Read: The Impact of Deportation on One Family

By Mary Ann Zehr — September 20, 2010 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A journalist and photojournalist for the San Jose Mercury News provide insight into issues about illegal immigration by following a family for a year after the father is deported and as the mother fights an order to be deported as well.

The two parents of the California family are undocumented, but their six children were born in the United States and are thus U.S. citizens.

I find it interesting that educators sometimes get actively involved in these cases.

The story reports that two teachers from San Mateo’s Aragon High School tried to help the family in court by testifying that the two teenagers of the family were college-bound. The athletic director for the school also attested to the fact that one of the teenagers had taken on a lot of responsibility in the family.

Also, the story says, the immigration judge seemed to be sympathetic to the possibility that one of the children, who struggled with learning disabilities, would suffer if he moved to Mexico with his mother, seeming to favor the possibility that the mother should not be deported. At one point, the judge decides to extend an immigration hearing so that child can be further evaluated.

Readers, if any of you are educators and have gotten involved in supporting families when a parent is deported or faces deportation, share your experiences with us here on this blog.

Update: Here’s more food for thought on this issue of how educators get involved in court cases involving undocumented immigrants. The New York Times reports that the New York City Department of Education has received a subpoena for the school records of an undocumented student from Mali, which is a very unusual request. (Hat tip to GothamSchools).

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.