Proximity and policy: negotiating safe spaces between immigration policy and school practice

Abstract

Policy around the legal status and social rights of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants is unresolved, making it imperative that PK-12 schools and educators prepare for challenges to undocumented students’ educational access. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appeared near an elementary school, which required school personnel to use the space in and around their school to demarcate boundaries to limit the impact of ICE activity on the school community. Critical moral geography is the guiding theoretical construct the authors use to examine the intersection of immigration policy and education in the context of immigration enforcement near a public school. Critical moral theory suggests that “places” are sites where people contest their values and concepts of what is morally correct, engaging in struggles over power. Thinking about space broadly allows for an exploration of how different policies converge and affect the spaces where educators are trying to engage in moral work. The authors conclude that educators can be instrumental in creating safe spaces for undocumented students.

Keywords:

• undocumented students
• school leadership
• case study
• immigrants

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. Lisa M. Dorner for her thoughtful comments and feedback on drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The names of the school and all research participants are pseudonyms.

2. A person who is undocumented is defined as someone who has come to the United States without official legal government authorization. The terms “undocumented” and “unauthorized” are used interchangeably in this piece.

3. PK-12 signifies the levels of schooling inclusive of preschool and kindergarten all the way through high school.