Valley Views: Area must consider needs of migrant children
Tracey Holland • April 28, 2010

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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently works with local law enforcement to assist in work-site immigration raids. These raids are intended to both frighten away individuals who have illegally entered the United States and to send a clear message to potential illegal immigrants who are considering coming to these communities. Very little is known about whether the workplace raids actually curb illegal immigration. What we do know is that raids — actual or threatened — have increased levels of fear and anxiety, even among legal residents. Children of immigrant communities are particularly sensitive to the negative effects of actual or potential workplace raids. The prospect of perceived assaults upon family breadwinners and loved ones dramatically unsettles these children's lives.




The mid-Hudson Valley is home to many migrants who work in stores, factories and restaurants, as well as on a large number of farms in the region. In December a workplace enforcement raid took place at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh. If more workplace raids are to occur in the region within the next year, it will come as a surprise to no one.
It is therefore vital that school administrators establish protocols that can be followed in the event of a raid so as to (a) mitigate the harmful emotional impacts schoolchildren might receive during and/or after the raids, and (b) thereby preserve the dignity of migrant children.
Such protocols should include the collection of reliable and up-to-date contact information that can be used to locate trustworthy friends and family members of children whose parents have been detained during a raid. There should also be a thorough procedure for helping these kids maintain their schoolwork in the ensuing days, weeks and months.
School administrators also must develop programs that teach the rights of migrant students in schools to school leaders, teachers and parents. At the center of such instruction will inevitably be the U.S. Supreme Court's judgment in Plyler v. Doe (1982), which has firmly established the educational rights of migrant children. The ruling guarantees undocumented children a free public education and, in conjunction with other legal cases based on the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, makes it clear not only that immigration agents cannot conduct school-building raids, but also that school personnel can refuse to share student records with ICE officials.

Educational programs also must seek to build awareness of the special circumstances in which migrant children live, and to provide information about the special academic and emotional needs of migrant children.

Nowadays anti-immigrant fervor runs high among certain portions of the U.S. public, and negative feelings about undocumented adult workers can all too easily trickle down to their young children. Even when undaunted by the prospect of a possible raid, many immigrant students daily face prejudice and discrimination from other children and adults in their schools and communities.
Should a raid occur, teachers will want to have lesson-plans and teaching strategies that help them address negative attitudes toward, and even possible bullying of, the migrant students in their classrooms. This is especially the case if a student has been singled out by his or her peers as having an unauthorized worker-parent who has been detained.
Not only do teachers and school administrators need information about the laws and policies with respect to undocumented children, they may need their own outlets in which they can discuss and reconcile their own views and attitudes toward immigration. These may be at odds with the laws protecting migrant children. Trained facilitators must be called upon to lead these discussions.
A longer-term approach to continuous and more comprehensive migrant-student incorporation plans is also needed in the mid-Hudson Valley. Most of the young people affected by past raids have remained in the United States, and the majority are U.S. citizens. Even though many local immigrant youths express a desire at one time or another to return to their home countries, the fact is they will probably remain here. This is all the more reason for the mid-Hudson region of New York to fight for national-level immigration reforms, reforms that will ensure a brighter future of educational opportunity and access, and that promise all young people the right to become productive members of the state economy and society.

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