Targeting Immigrant Students Won’t Make America Great Again

Opinion for The Latino Newsletter

Editor’s Note: Late Thursday night, Henders Aponte and Rebecca Garza, two high school students from Texas, sent over this opinion piece to The Latino Newsletter. We are publishing it here because we will always publish new and emerging voices from our community.

By Henders Aponte and Rebecca Garza

Immigration has become the White House’s favorite topic in its latest effort to fulfill hardline campaign promises. “National security concerns” have systematically pulled apart protections for immigrant students in America’s public schools. With a dangerous rhetoric of executive autocracy and excessive fear-mongering, Washington has stoked paranoia in both immigrant communities and the rest of the American public that could strip thousands of children of the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights to an education.

In his first week in office, President Trump rescinded long-standing guidelines that limited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in schools, a decision that is feared to effectively push undocumented students out of public education. Despite the precedent established by Pylyer v. Doe, which affirmed undocumented students’ right to an education with no restrictions, state governments, for example, Oklahoma, have taken this momentum to isolate immigrant students further.

In January, the state’s board of education passed a bill that would require newly enrolled students to provide evidence of their citizenship to otherwise designate them as undocumented—exacerbating many parents’ existing anxiety over their children being targeted by immigration officials at school.

Immediate Consequences

For immigrant students like us, the consequences are immediate and deeply personal. Despite recent disputes in court, the threat against birthright citizenship lingers in our minds. How will this be pushed forward? How many more of our classmates will disappear? We are already isolated for speaking Spanish, but will we now have to face ICE, regardless of our status, due to emboldened racists? In Fort Worth, Texas, a substitute openly invited ICE to raid his classroom overhearing his students speak Spanish. The incumbent administration has incited suspicion nationwide to make students feel unsafe—where even schools are becoming places for political persecution.

At school, we are student leaders. We have focused on fostering an equitable environment for our classmates by providing tutoring and English practice. But now, that mission has been sidetracked by something far more critical: ensuring that they are aware of their constitutional rights. 

This shift in educational culture, along with an additional $26.9 billion intended to be invested into ICE under the Laken Riley Act in this year’s budget, and Congress’ failure to pass regulations that would control this expansion, it is clear that President Trump’s administration has fostered an environment where anyone, anywhere, can be stopped. From how they will be impacted by racial profiling to the pause in asylum-seeking, all immigrants, regardless of status, are now facing uncertainty.

Not the First Time

This is not the first time America has targeted marginalized communities under the eloquence of national security concerns. We have faced countless lessons on the consequences of rejecting our proud “Don’t Tread on Me” mantra. We should remember the forced imprisonment of Japanese Americans in camps during World War II was conceived as a matter of national security.

Likewise, we must know the full impact of the Patriot Act, which spurred the creation of what we know as ICE, on the discrimination and unjust deportations of Muslim-Americans post 9/11. Time and again, we have seen marginalized communities targeted. Each time, history has judged these actions as shameful. The United States is at risk of repeating those mistakes today. 

We should all bear witness, analyze, and dismantle the dangerous rhetoric being espoused by Washington politicians, the one that classifies an undocumented 9-year-old as a national security threat and questions the legality of our proud Hispanic veterans. Our shared values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness require us to challenge the dangerous separation of empathy from those who are different from us. 

It is also impossible to ignore the same politicians who claim to champion helping families and are at the same time advocating for the separation of children from their classrooms, their teachers, and, ultimately, their own families. This situation is placing our teachers in an impossible position—already underpaid, and overburdened, they now lead with knowing that being forced to witness the children they teach being dragged out by armed officials is on the table. This possibility is not solely a right-wing overreach; it reflects the same authoritarian tendencies seen in left-wing fascism, where the state imposes arbitrary barriers to personal freedoms. 

Go Beyond the Fear

Fear is an easy response by immigrants and the rest of our fellow Americans to these injustices, but it is not an option. Democracy does not begin and end with a singular election. It requires our continued action at every level, but especially in our local communities. When adversaries give us a plan to attack our rights we should tune in, but not abandon one of our core strengths as Americans, to come together and outlast cruelty. Student leaders like us will continue to ensure that immigrant children know their rights and that schools are places of learning, not fear. 

To those who have never had to question their place in this country, we ask you to imagine what it is like to be told your existence is debatable, that your right to an education and a future is up for politicians who have never had to escape persecution. Imagine proving your humanity to people who have never met you.

Our nation’s strength has always been its diversity. Instead of alienating immigrant students, and marking them as dangerous, we should be welcoming them for the perspectives and experiences they enrich this country with.

We refuse to be silent as thousands of students face an uncertain and cruel future. We say enough of the fear pulling students back from learning. We will push back against policies that seek to divide us from our families, friends, communities, and classmates. We urge this country to remember that education is a right, not a privilege granted at the urge of political convenience.

We are here.

We are learning.

And we are not going anywhere. 

About the Authors

Henders Aponte and Rebecca Garza are both Texas high school students. Aponte is a Venezuelan immigrant and Garza is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. 

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The Latino Newsletter welcomes opinion pieces in English and/or Spanish from community voices. Submission guidelines are here. The views expressed by outside opinion contributors do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this outlet or its employees.