One of my kids talked about being home alone
and there was a bam on the door, and then he peeked out the window.
Saw that it was I.C.E.
He ran and hid in the closet
because he didn't know what to do.
He came to class, very sad, very lethargic, somberish.
And I went up to him, I told him that he can stay after class with me.
I said, “Mijo, what's going on?”
He goes, "I had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. Miss Benavidas."
And I go, “Why?!”
She had come to my room and in tears.
So I, I had known the student.
We'll call her...
Eileen, was actually the… one of the only students to reach out to me needing some help.
This young man lived with his father.
And his father and mother, they lived, I think probably five blocks from each other or something like that
But the kid always came to school buttoned up.
I started noticing that his clothes were hanging out.
And I'm looking at his essays that we were writing in class
and half way finished.
I waited about a week or so and things didn't get much better, you know?
So then I just, I said "Listen you need talk to me.
Tell me what's going on here."
One student of mine, she was a fifth grader in my class.
So I gave all of them my contact
info when they graduated.
That if they ever need help in anything, they can reach out to me.
There was a conversation happening in one
of her other classes
about the views of Donald Trump in terms of immigration.
She was extremely vulnerable in that situation, where she couldn’t feel like she could speak up
And all of a sudden, it wasn't, it didn't feel safe to her.
Why?
Why did you wake up at 3:00 a.m.?
He goes, "Because I.C.E. came and knocked at the door and took my dad."
I couldn't sleep after that.
As immigrants we do face discrimination or racism.
But that should empower us to be better.
And to show people that immigrants are not all those generalizations that they say we are
My parents are both undocumented.
They believe that education is the way to get ahead in life
because with education, comes power.
And so, I just would go over and tutor her.
Got to know her family better, through that.
And they've been to my home, and they've opened to me a little bit more what they go through
as a family.
Technically, my responsibility as an educator, through my credentials, is to teach.
And give them the curriculum that they're required to pass state tests and to be successful
in higher education.
However, if I cannot have a stable child,
if I cannot have a child with love, internal love,
how can I teach them?
On the way to the store, I saw a car that was suspicious.
It was I.C.E., and my dad asked what he had done wrong for them to stop him.
They told him to be quiet and to get out of the car because he has an order of deportation.
They handcuffed him, and they left.
(Fátima crying)
We all saw that heartbreaking recording that she did.
Yet, she insisted on coming to school.
When I saw Fátima coming to school in tears,
growing up as a brown person during Apartheid,
I just relieved so many of those Apartheid evils.
And I knew, then, that we needed to mobilize.
And I was with them that evening as we went down to stop the deportation,
to stop the van from leaving the I.C.E. offices.
And, fortunately, we got a stay within a half an hour before he was supposed to have left.
We as teachers, we have these children in our classroom.
And if we see something that is unjust we have to speak up.
It's children who we are talking about.
Children who have come here on, no fault of their own, who are being punished.
It's kids that are striving to make the world a better place.
To make their lives better, just like anybody else.
My parents just wanted a better future for us.
They sacrificed the commodities they had in Mexico, and I mean that sacrifice is what
pushes me and inspires me.
If my parents did that for me, then I have to repay them by getting a better education.
Because that’s what my parents brought us here for.
They need a lot of connection with, not only their home environment, but the community
and as well as the institution.
Because they've been pushed out of the system.
We're all humans.
We're all in the same party.
We are the human race.
And just like our country is founded on the belief that all human beings are equal and
have inalienable rights.
That does not exclude these young people who just want an opportunity for life, liberty,
pursuit of happiness.
You better walk the walk if you are a teacher.
If you say this is important, than you better act like it’s important.
So, I teach because I want to change the world and try to make a difference.
And these kids laugh at me at first, and then they go out and do it.
There has been a huge inequality from the start, there’s been nothing to level the
playing field.
And I think education is where that can happen, where that
liberation can come from.