What do you say to a student who’s scared that they or a family member could be deported?
That’s a question facing a lot of teachers and school administrators since Donald Trump won the presidential election earlier this month – nowhere more so than in Southern California, home to the largest group of undocumented immigrants in the country.
President-elect Trump vowed repeatedly during the campaign to deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally. Since the election, Trump has said he’ll target those with criminal records first. Some elected leaders on the local and state level in California are promising not to cooperate with immigration officials, and to do whatever they can to prevent families from being broken up.
But it’s school employees who are dealing with the unease and the anger on a daily basis.
Luis Vega teaches art at Lynwood High School, near Watts. He says educators are getting used to the idea of being on the front lines of the immigration debate: