Earlier this 12 months, immigration officers detained 20-year-old Dylan Lopez Contreras at a routine court docket date in New York.
On the time, Contreras was a freshman on the metropolis’s English Language Learners and Worldwide Assist Preparatory Academy, or ELLIS Prep, the place college students ages 16 and older can full a highschool schooling after coming into the US with restricted or interrupted formal education.
Contreras, initially from Venezuela, stays at a Pennsylvania detention facility, as reported by Chalkbeat. Advocates say his arrest in late Could was a part of a nationwide effort from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE to detain people at routine court docket hearings. Contreras had entered the U.S. border below a Biden-era entry program and was looking for asylum.
On Could 6, the Division of Homeland Safety issued a press release saying it “rescinded the Biden Administration’s tips for ICE actions that thwarted legislation enforcement from finishing up immigration enforcement arrests in courthouses and emboldened legal unlawful aliens.”
Eric Marquez, a historical past instructor at ELLIS Prep who taught U.S. historical past to Contreras final college 12 months, spoke with Schooling Week about what it’s been like to show immigrant college students when a classmate is detained by immigration officers, and what lecturers can do to assist assuage college students’ fears.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
What was Dylan Lopez Contreras like as a scholar?
I’d say that he didn’t converse lots, even in Spanish. He was slightly extra contemplative.
He was already supporting his mom together with his siblings. You could possibly see instantly that he was a compassionate particular person. He created a brand new Uno recreation that youngsters would play day by day at lunch. There would by no means be any have to say, ‘Dylan, can you’ve gotten a seat?’ or ‘Dylan, consideration please.’ Particularly at his age, and what [he’s] been via, he simply sort of was prepared to check.
[After he was detained,] we had a letter-writing marketing campaign that despatched one thing like 140 letters, individually stamped and handwritten, by college students speaking about their emotions about what Dylan was going via, giving him properly needs.
We simply heard again from him not too long ago … he’s nonetheless related to us, even now. In August, he despatched a notice via his mom, and it got here out not solely to us, however to different colleges that had supported him.
One in all his responses [in Spanish] was, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t actually perceive the English letters very a lot. However I wish to say thanks to all my inglés-hablantes.’
What sort of advocacy work is the varsity engaged in for Dylan’s launch?
Dylan’s mom referred to as the varsity and the [9th grade] counselor instantly. She mentioned, ‘I don’t perceive what’s occurring. They’re taking him away. They simply mentioned his case was dismissed or one thing.’
[The counselor] and quite a few others from my college, and people from the group [provided Dylan with] authorized connections who’re keen to do some professional bono work.
One other instructor at our college created a GoFundMe web page that introduced in one thing like $43,000 [because Dylan’s mother] has had a tough time with out her baby, who was one of many breadwinners of the household. There have been protests on the steps of the downtown courthouse. Not too long ago, a few of our advocacy has been with media outreach.
How are Dylan’s classmates dealing with the information now that we’re at the beginning of a brand new college 12 months?
The children are resilient in a means that, a minimum of, they appear extra resilient than even the adults typically.
If it’s introduced up, or if there’s some replace, they’re asking lecturers and one another. They’re an oddly light class of 70 or 80 college students who aren’t impolite, who’re respectful of authority, but in addition curious and keen to push again on it. They care for one another, and so they specific their want for us.
They attain out to [Dylan’s mother] via WhatsApp.
They’re those serving to me. They present me photos that they’ve gotten via his mother of him in Venezuela, earlier than he even left. He has sayings that he’ll inform the youngsters. And it’s sort of like he’s a smart man doing a quick or a monk as a result of he stays simply so humble and hopeful. We’re then unbelievably hopeful. So, in the case of how my youngsters are doing, they’re hopeful from the brilliance that Dylan continues to shine.
How do you’re feeling as an educator attempting to navigate transferring ahead with a lacking scholar?
I get a pang in my coronary heart after I hear you say the phrase lacking, nearly like desaparecidos, like disappeared individuals. It truly is.
It’s the first time that I’ve handled this immediately, when it comes to seeing it in my face and listening to updates by the second from the counselor, and having conferences about it. Dylan [was] taken outdoors of the varsity the place we couldn’t even feasibly shield him. You trusted that the scheduled listening to was a protected area.
What recommendation do you’ve gotten for lecturers throughout the nation with college students afraid of immigration arrests?
On a private stage, I’ve an open-door coverage. I’ve this sign-in sheet the place individuals can speak about no matter they need.
If it’s an English-as-a-second-language scholar or undocumented scholar in a normal inhabitants, and so they don’t essentially talk properly with the instructor due to an absence of English, get to know the child. I’ve seen far too a lot of our sort of scholars, our children, remoted, the place the lecturers don’t actually attain out or don’t know easy methods to essentially.
Compassion is primary. Quantity two is, be as clear as doable in the case of dad and mom and as protecting as doable in the case of college students.
Our children nonetheless come to highschool regardless of their concern, as a result of [parents] can rely on their baby’s security at our college. They know they’ll get a very good schooling. They know they’ll be cared for like household.
