ABSTRACT
This article describes the significant and increasing challenges faced by children of Mexican immigrants on both sides of the border. US schools that serve these students overwhelmingly in low-resource, segregated settings are under attack by ICE, disrupting their education. Meanwhile, more than half a million US born, as well as many Mexican born but US educated (generation 1.5) students, are attempting to integrate into Mexican schools that lack training in teaching and supporting them. In the face of data that show a plummeting birth rate in the US and a high demand for bilingual, multi-cultural workers in both Mexico and the U.S, the enormous asset represented by the students we share is being squandered.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Immigration and Customs Enforcement: the federal agency charged with policing immigration.
2 In Spanish these students are referred to colloquially as “retornados” or “returnees”, even though they may have never set foot in Mexico before.
3 See sealofbiliteracy.org.
4 In the United States, those students who were brought to the country without papers at a young age, who have attended and successfully graduated from U.S. schools are known as “the dreamers.”