Opinion
Equity & Diversity Opinion

When It Comes to ‘Dreamers,’ Schools Have a Trump Problem

By Bruce Fuller — April 02, 2018 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Bruce Fuller, Opinion Contributor

—Photo: Craig Sherod Photography


Bruce Fuller, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, works on how schools and civic activists push to advance pluralistic communities. He is a regular opinion contributor to edweek.org where he trades views with Lance Izumi, on the other side of the political aisle. Read Lance Izumi’s response to this essay.

America’s high schools rarely offer a warm cocoon for our youths, secluded from pressing social ills. Neighborhood disparities deepen wide gaps in learning. The cowardice of pro-gun politicians leads to bloodshed inside classrooms.

President Donald Trump chose Easter Sunday to again vilify the children of immigrants, falsely claiming that dangerous “caravans” of immigrants are crossing the border to take advantage of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. This follows the president’s implications earlier this year that young immigrants were fording the Rio Grande River simply to join the cross-border gang MS-13 and infiltrate our schools.

The future of DACA, which covers less than a quarter of the 3.6 million undocumented residents who arrived before their 18th birthday, remains uncertain. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on the Trump administration’s attempt to unilaterally end the program, leaving DACA recipients in limbo as the legal battle works its way through the lower appeals courts. That didn’t stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from traveling to California to warn city officials they cannot provide safe sanctuary for these youths.

But students are pushing back against Trump’s efforts to inject fear and prejudice into the nation’s high schools. Hundreds walked out of Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston last month, after Dennis Rivera-Sarmiento, a senior, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Rivera-Sarmiento had been riding high, recently accepted to computer science programs at Texas A&M University and Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas for next fall. “His teachers know him as kind and respectful,” one school counselor described in a Houston Chronicle op-ed, “and as the serious-faced kid with a mop of curly hair that they look forward to having in class.”

But in a flash of anger, taunted by hostile classmates for being an immigrant, according the school counselor’s account, Rivera-Sarmiento knocked a fellow student to the ground. A campus guard quickly tamed the scuffle. Then, Houston school officials inexplicably passed Rivera-Sarmiento to ICE officers, who continue to detain him.

Students also rebelled over a case in Durham, N.C., where Wilden Acosta was nabbed by ICE agents one morning in 2016 as he walked to Riverside High School.

Trump’s condemnation of immigrant children is ironic, since they often outperform native-born peers in school."

He was a popular kid who was “always smiling,” his classmate Pamela told me. She and fellow students—deploying the reporting acumen they learned in journalism class—broadcast details of the case, traveled to Washington to meet with government officials, and raised the $10,000 bail necessary to spring Acosta from federal detention. Bryan Christopher, adviser for school paper, described these students as “natural leaders and community minded,” and said they mobilized their “writing skills, using the internet and social media.”

Pamela herself was just 2 years old when her parents traveled on work permits to Durham from Mexico to work in a fish-packing plant. Pamela never saw the asterisk stamped next to her American Dream, until she applied for college aid—without a Social Security number. “It first hit me,” she recalled, “Oh, I have this goal of going to college, and I can’t do that.”

When listening to Trump, she feels angry. “He’s judging our race or ethnicity based on the actions of a few people,” Pamela said. “The president can say these things, so [others] can talk like that, too.”

Trump’s condemnation of immigrant children is ironic, since they often outperform native-born peers in school. My own research details how the children of immigrants on average begin school with great respect for teachers and agile cooperative skills, many of them raised by Asian or Latino parents who live by traditionally pro-family values. These kids often spend more time on homework and achieve better grades than their peers, motivated by all that their parents sacrifice for their children’s future.

Take Susan, another inspiring student, who arrived to Koreatown at age 5, west of downtown Los Angeles. Her parents spoke no English but found the best public schools, sending Susan over the Hollywood Hills each morning to a high school that offered Advanced Placement courses.

She won admission to the selective Irvine campus of the University of California, but then missed the window to gain DACA status. Now 21, Susan has been denied paid internships, since she cannot obtain a work permit.

Many DACA recipients do find promising paths. Pamela earned admission to Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. “where I can feel open and relate to everyone, like I do with my friends.” An immigration judge delayed the young Acosta’s deportation in January, after he married his sweetheart from Riverside High.

But for many others, the daily grind of uncertainty and shaming by politicians makes the American Dream all the more elusive. “It’s demeaning,” Susan told me. The president and his agenda makes her feel that she’s “not good enough, not worthy enough.”

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
(Re)Focus on Dyslexia: Moving Beyond Diagnosis & Toward Transformation
Move beyond dyslexia diagnoses & focus on effective literacy instruction for ALL students. Join us to learn research-based strategies that benefit learners in PreK-8.
Content provided by EPS Learning
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Cohesive Instruction, Connected Schools: Scale Excellence District-Wide with the Right Technology
Ensure all students receive high-quality instruction with a cohesive educational framework. Learn how to empower teachers and leverage technology.
Content provided by Instructure
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
How to Use Data to Combat Bullying and Enhance School Safety
Join our webinar to learn how data can help identify bullying, implement effective interventions, & foster student well-being.
Content provided by Panorama Education

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Why It's Important to Recruit More School Counselors of Color
Many students of color say they want to talk to someone who looks like them.
5 min read
School social worker Melva Mullins embraces a student in her office at Garnet-Patterson S.T.A.Y. High School in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27, 2024, after the student confided in Mullins about some heavy topics.
School social worker Melva Mullins embraces a student in her office at Garnet-Patterson S.T.A.Y. High School in the District of Columbia on Sept. 27, 2024, after the student confided in Mullins about some heavy topics.
Maansi Srivastava for Education Week
Equity & Diversity What Works to Help Students of Color Feel Like They Belong at School
New research focuses on how ethnic studies classes and local partnerships can help students of all races feel they belong in school.
5 min read
Group of diverse people (aerial view) in a circle holding hands. Cooperation and teamwork. Community of friends, students, or volunteers committed to social issues for peace and the environment.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Equity & Diversity It's Banned Books Week. Have the Challenges to Books Slowed Down?
Attempts to ban books in public schools are still prevalent, according to two new reports.
5 min read
Image of a bookshelf.
Luoman/E+
Equity & Diversity Educators Tend to View Black Girls More Harshly. Here Are the Consequences
Schools discipline Black girls more frequently and severely than their white peers—even for similar incidents.
8 min read
Sign on door that reads "Principal's Office" from a school.
Liz Yap/education Week with E+