When some immigrant children go to school, their minds are not focused on learning, but on fear. Will immigration authorities remove them from school? Will their families be at home when they come back?
To better understand how President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is affecting children and families, we spoke to teachers and parents in Santa Maria, California, near where we work as college professors. The teachers, from a local elementary school, were Chrystal Le Suer and Spencer LeSuer. Both had empty chairs in their classrooms on Feb. 16, the Day Without Immigrants, when many students stayed home to convey an alarming message: for students, school is not a safe haven anymore.
“It is a scary time, and I have received concerned letters from families who fear what the future holds,” Chrystal says. “I have calmed worried students and listened to concerns about their parents being deported.”
Spencer, whose students are mostly children of migrant workers, has integrated a current-news class activity where students can discuss various topics. “They are very curious and at a young age good enough to jump to conclusions,” he says. “They become informed and relay this information to their parents.”
And while both teachers try to be reassuring, Chrystal notes, “The possibility of (deportation) seems very real to some of my students.”
Constant stress and anxiety are known to impact children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. Immigrant children may be suffering already from earlier traumatic experiences and coping with additional stress can make matters worse.
Since President Trump took office, distress has visibly increased in Santa Maria, where nearly three-fourths of the population is Latino. Local immigrants are terrified of being separated from their families.
“Paula,” a mother of two small children (the name is a pseudonym), says she has lived in agony since the new administration took office. “My kids always ask me if I'm coming back from work,” she says. “That makes me feel sadder because I go to work with fear and uncertainty over what is going to happen today, whether I will make it back.”
Many of these families do not have relatives in this country who could look after their children if they are deported. They worry all the time. “What if we will never see our children again?” asks a mother we’ll call Sophia. “Who will take care of them? What would happen to them?”
The United States has always been a country of opportunities. Latino families come here to provide a better education for their children. Says Sophia, “I recognize that this is not our country, but we are here for our children.”
Community agencies need to do more to provide social and emotional support for immigrant children and their families. More must be done to inform parents of their rights. School faculty and staff should receive training to deal with these issues. We need community collaboration, effort and determination.
As Marian Wright Edelman once said, “If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.”
Erica Ruvalcaba-Heredia and Andrea Somoza-Norton
Dr. Andrea Somoza-Norton is an assistant professor at the School of Education at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Dr. Erica Ruvalcaba-Heredia is a professor at Allan Hancock College and coordinator for the Promotores Collaborative at San Luis Obispo County.