20,000 DACA teachers at risk
Fallout would hit already understaffed school systems
Growing up in metro Atlanta, Yehimi Adriana Cambrón Álvarez could see Cross Keys High School from her bedroom window.
Born in Morelia, in Mexico’s central Michoacán state, a place hit especially hard by the drug war, she was brought to De Kalb County, Ga., as a child. Cambrón grew up as an undocumented immigrant, one of about 11.3 million in the USA. She graduated from Cross Keys and earned a studio art degree in 2014.
She’s deep into her third year teaching art at her alma mater.
“This has kind of been my dream, to come back and teach here,” Cambrón said Tuesday as she prepped for classes. “This is a community that I grew up in — this is where I call home.”
Her plans could soon collapse: Last month, the Trump administration began winding down Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the 2012 Obama administration program designed to protect undocumented immigrants brought here as children.
If lawmakers can’t fix DACA, Cambrón and thousands of teachers like her could face deportation when their work permits expire — in her case, that happens in February 2018.
Her students, she said, are “very aware of what’s happening ” with the program. “It’s very real for them.”
Cambrón said, “They’re just in shock that I could be taken away from the classroom like that.”
Nationwide, about 20,000 DACA-eligible teachers — many who possess Spanish-language skills that are in high demand — could be plucked from the classroom if the program is phased out, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Losing that many teachers would have a huge effect on kids, said Viridiana Carrizales of Teach For America (TFA), a teacher-- preparation program that advocates for DACA. “We cannot afford to lose so many teachers and impact so many students,” she said. “Every time a student loses a teacher, that is a disruption in the student’s learning.”
Given rising student populations, public schools are short by about 327,000 educators, according to a report Oct. 6 by the Economic Policy Institute, a D.C.-based think tank.
President Trump sent Congress a list of demands Sunday that he said “must be included” in any legislation addressing the status of “DREAMers” such as Cambrón. The requirements include: uBuilding a border wall. uHiring thousands of border guards.
uExpanding the use of electronic employment verification systems.
Democrats rejected the demands. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the proposal “cruel and unacceptable to the DREAMers, opposed by the overwhelming majority of Americans and anathema to the values of our nation itself.”
DACA’s uncertainty pushed teachers’ groups to play a more active role in pressing Congress to fix it.
Last month, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called Trump’s move to wind down DACA “a heartless assault on young immigrants and on our communities.”
“The young people covered by DACA are woven into the fabric of American society. They contribute to our economic growth and our diversity,” she said.
In 2012, soon after President Obama issued an executive order that protected immigrants brought to the USA before they turned 16, TFA leaders learned that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of teacher applicants were ineligible because of their immigration status. TFA rules dictated that applicants had to be permanent residents or U.S. citizens to be considered as “corps members.”
The following year, TFA changed its admissions process to accept undocumented applicants. That year, it admitted two. Four years later, TFA boasts 100 “DACAmented” teachers serving about 10,000 students in 11 states. TFA said 88 alumni are undocumented.
Other organizations that work in schools haven’t tweaked their requirements. City Year, which sends young college graduates to serve as support staff to needy schools in 28 cities, doesn’t accept DACA recipients.
Michelle Mittelstadt, spokeswoman for the Migration Policy Institute, a D.C.-based think tank, said few Americans grasp that DREAMers are highly educated, having been schooled and acculturated in the USA in most cases.
“I think it’s not well-perceived that this is a population that has largely gone through school in the United States,” she said. “They are in the workforce ... in some cases, in middle-skill and higher-skilled jobs.”
Cambrón said, “People do think we’re these criminals who are in hiding, but the reality is that, especially because of DACA, we are your teachers, we are your lawyers. We’re in the professional sphere now. We’re working in the school systems. We’re in the military.”
Carrizales noted that her program, which has placed thousands of teachers in U.S. schools since 1990, is “very selective,” and many applicants graduate from the best universities in the nation.
Carrizales, 29, who began working in TFA’s San Antonio office in 2012, had been on the job for more than a year when TFA created a position in 2013 focused exclusively on immigration issues and advocacy. She’s TFA’s managing director for DACA.
Carrizales grew up in Dallas — like many DREAMers, she came to the USA at a young age (she was 11). Fear of being discovered, she recalled, was omnipresent.
Cambrón said she has been open about her status since the beginning. She holds DACA staff training for her colleagues — and discussion groups for students.
“You build relationships with the students. They open up to you,” she said. “I can’t imagine having to leave.”
Students are “in shock that I could be taken away from the classroom.”
Yehimi Adriana Cambrón Álvarez, Cross Keys High School art teacher