For the last two months of his life in the United States, Jose Alberto Gonzalez and his family spent almost all their time in a one-bedroom apartment in Denver. They didn’t tell anyone except their roommate, another family member from Venezuela.
They consulted WhatsApp messages about the warnings of local immigration agents before going out to rare landscaping jobs or buying groceries.
However, most days, at 7:20am, I took Gonzalez’s wife to school.
The appeal of children learning English American schoolsand a desire to make money forced Gonzalez and his wife to bring their six- and three-year-olds on a month-long journey to the United States.
They arrived two years ago and planned to stay for 10 years. However, on February 28th, Gonzalez and his family boarded a bus from Denver to El Paso, where they began a long trip across the border to Venezuela.
Despite the fear that American immigrants avoid going out in public and encounter immigration authorities, most families across the country are I’ll send the kids to school.
That doesn’t mean they feel safe. In some cases, families tell their children’s school that they are leaving.
The Department of Homeland Security says that thousands of migrants have already notified federal authorities who are planning to “self-report.” President Donald Trump has I encouraged more families to leave to strip the fear of imprisonment and strengthen government surveillance; Give people $1,000 Transport abroad.
And on Monday, supreme court The Trump administration allowed hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants to strip them of legal protections, potentially exposing them to deportation. None Temporary Protection Statussupporters say they will weigh more families about whether to leave the United States.
A considerable number of departures could spell out the troubles of the school. Schools may receive funding based on the number of students they have registered.
“The amount of fear and uncertainty that has passed through my parents’ heads can blame someone for choosing to leave?” said Andrea Rentalia, principal at Denver Elementary School. Serving immigrant students. “I can tell them as principal, that I won’t let anyone at this school. No one is taking your kids with me. But I can’t say the same thing in the labor force for them, or drive anywhere.”
Rumors of an immigrant attack on schools have become a turning point
When Trump was elected in November after promising to deport immigrants and portraying Venezuelans in particular as gang members, Gonzalez knew it was time to go. He tried to embrace the trade-off of making only $50 a week in his home country where public schools run several hours a day.
“I don’t want to be treated like delinquent,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “I’m from Venezuela and I have tattoos. For him, that means I’m a criminal.”
It took Gonzalez months to save more than $3,000 needed to take his family to Venezuela and take him to Venezuela on foot. He and his wife did not tell anyone their plans, except for their single mother, who shares their apartment and is afraid to draw attention to herself. They will inform those who want to leave that they lived here illegally.
They regularly sent their children to Denver School until late February, when Gonzalez’s phone was lit up with a message claiming that immigration agents were planning an attack inside the school. That week they left their son at home.
“To be honest, we were really scared of the boy,” Gonzalez said. “Because we didn’t have legal status.”
District data shows attendance at Denver public schools has been a pain in the months since Trump took office.
Attendees across the district fell 3% in February compared to the same period last year, and even saw a sharp decline of up to 4.7% in schools serving primarily new immigrant students. The contraction rate continued until March, with attendance across the district down 1.7%, reaching 3.9% in some newcomers’ schools.
Some parents told staff at Denver School that they had no plans to approach their children’s campuses after the Trump administration. Policy has ended It had limited immigration enforcement in schools.
Denver School District sued the government In that reversal, attendees say it has “significantly” declined in all schools, especially in areas where families from new countries and countries have already occurred, and in places where ice raids have already occurred. A federal judge ruled in March that the district could not prove a new policy that caused a decline in attendance.
Many schools saw a decline in attendance after Trump’s inauguration
Data from 15 districts across eight additional states, including Texas, Alabama, Idaho and Massachusetts, showed similar declines in school attendance after weeks of inauguration. At most places, attendees rebounded earlier than Denver.
Over 40,000 Venezuelans and Colombian immigrants from 2022 to 2024 I received the shelter or any other assistance from Denver. Trump said Campaign in progress He launched an effort to deport the nearby U.S. outside Aurora due to suspected Venezuelan gang activity.
Nationally, schools have reported immediate declines in daily attendance for weeks when communities have had immigration enforcement or even rumors of ice attacks, said Hedy Chang, a nonprofit attendance work that helps schools deal with absenteeism.
Dozens of districts did not respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they were afraid to attract the attention of immigration enforcement.
In late February, Gonzalez and his wife retracted their children from school and told administrators they were back in Venezuela. He posted a farewell message to a Facebook group for volunteers in Denver who found work and other help. “Thank you to your friends,” he posted. “Tomorrow I will leave in God’s favor.”
Soon, half a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian women asked him for advice on returning. “If God allows, we will leave in May,” one woman wrote in Spanish.
In Denver, 3,323 students left school until mid-April. This is an increase of 686 compared to the same period last year. Denver school officials were unable to explain the rise.
At least two students have withdrawn since taking office due to immigration concerns, the head of Andrea Renteria, Denver Elementary School, with 400 students. One returned to Colombia, the other not saying where they were heading.
School officials in Massachusetts and Washington have confirmed that some students have withdrawn from schools and returned to El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico. Haitians are trying to go to Mexico or Canada.
In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a student district of 6,000, where almost half of its students still learn English, a small number of families recently withdraw their children due to immigration concerns.
District administrator Daniel Mozica said one mother retreated two young children from the district and returned to El Salvador in March. Her 19-year-old daughter is behind herself to graduate from school. These are indications that these decisions are leading to more families being separated.
In Bellingham, Washington, two families retreated their children after an immigration and customs attack at a local roofing company in early April, where agents arrested the father of 16 children attending schools in Bellingham. Family engagement specialist Isabel Meeker said both families have returned to Mexico.
“There’s a sense that not just these families are not worth fighting for. They know the end result,” Meeker said.
Immigrant families gather the documents they need to go home
In countries with a large population living in the US, there are signs that more people are hoping to return home.
According to data from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, applications for Brazilian passports from US consulates increased by 36% in March compared to the previous year. Birth registration, the first step to obtaining a Brazilian passport for a US-born child, rose 76% in April compared to the previous year. Guatemala reports a 5% increase in passports from US citizens over the last year.
Last month, Melvin Josue, his wife and another couple drove four hours from New Jersey to Boston to get Honjuran passports for American-born children.
If these families decide that life in the US is unacceptable, this is an urgent step to take. Melvin Josue is concerned about Trump’s immigration policy and what will happen if he or his wife are taken into custody, but he has been interested in the difficulty of finding a job these days.
His demand for drywall crew quickly ceased amidst the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs. He also said he would be reluctant to hire workers illegally here.
(The Associated Press agreed to use only his first and middle names, as he is afraid to leave his family as he is illegally in the country.)
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we may have to go back to Honduras,” he said. “I want to get ready.”
The size of Exodus and its impact on schools remains unknown, but some are already beginning to worry.
A consultant working with the Texas district on immigration education said one district saw a significant drop in summer school sign-ups for students learning English.
“They are really worried about admission to the fall,” said Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive of Immschools, a nonprofit that advises school districts on how to meet the needs of immigrant students and their families.
Educational finance experts predict budget issues in areas with high immigration.
“Every student walking through the door uses it not only federal money, but also state and local money to make money,” said Marguerite Rosa, a professor at Georgetown University who focuses on education finance. “If a district has a lot of immigrant students in that district, that’s a potential loss of funds. I think it’s a really high risk.”
Offerings to leave immigrants and pay immigrants to assist in transport could speed up departures.
Now returning to Venezuela, Gonzalez says he didn’t accept the money as it meant registering with the US government he no longer trusts. And that’s what he’s telling dozens of immigrants who contact him every week and ask him what the best way to get home.
Go for yourself and he tells them. Once you get cash, it’s much easier to go south than you would have reached the US in the first place.
___
Associated Press Writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.
___
Associated Press Education Compensation receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP standard For charity, list of ap.org supporters and funded compensation areas.
Source link
