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Welcome to Horizonte, a weekly series where we take a look at important issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host, Catherine Anaya.

Aggressive immigration enforcement actions are negatively impacting children's mental health and education.

According to experts and educators, attendance at some predominantly Latino schools is down across the country, including right here in Arizona.

Parents and teachers worry their kids will fall behind academically or when they stay at home from school, out of fear that Ice could deport family members or friends, or even them.

The Arizona Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, isn't mincing words, saying immigration enforcement actions are, quote, creating an education problem.

Joining me now is Marisol Garcia, president of the ACA and an eighth grade teacher right here in Phoenix.

Great to see you again.

Great to see you.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you for joining me.

So talk to me about this education problem and how this increase in immigration enforcement is impacting schools and students in ways that you've never seen before.

Well, I mean, schools are one of the most stabilizing factors in our children's lives, knowing that they're going to be greeted by the same people when they walk on campus.

They're going to see their friends.

They know you walk into a class, you take off your backpack, you open up your computer, your notebook.

And we need those places to be safe for all of us.

And when students are seeing whether whether on their phone, in the media seeing this increased militarization, it does cause a lot of fear.

And it takes longer to get students to sit down, take deep breaths and focus in on math and on reading and and in my class, social studies.

Well, and it raises anxiety levels on so many levels.

We've heard reports across the country where parents are getting detained at bus stops or agents are on school grounds, and the fear really is real.

Talk to me a little bit about the kind of toll that all of this what we're hearing, what we're seeing is having on students in schools here in Arizona in particular.

It is such an unnecessary thing that is happening in their lives.

These are innocent children who want to go to school and learn, and families that are really working extremely hard to make sure that they at home are stable.

We're trying to offer that.

So having kids in the back of their head, not sure of who's going to be at home when we get home, what kind of noises are happening at night, or even just what a police car driving by.

That instills this instability, that walking into school we have to go extra out of our way to make sure kids are focused and learning.

And we're hearing from families or students who are saying, you know, I'm afraid to go to school because I don't know if when I get home, my parents are going to be there.

Have you seen a spike in absences or a drop in enrollment because of that fear?

Yeah.

I mean, data is really difficult to collect, but speaking to educators and programs that specifically work with students of either immigrant families or students that have been here, it is happening and students will not show up to school and they'll have to go.

Schools will take extra efforts to knock on doors and try to be that person that says, please come to school.

We need you at school.

It's again something that's not necessarily part of our normal scope of work, why people enter this profession or why schools exist.

But we have to make sure that families know this is a safe place for you to be.

And we know that when students are not in school, they're not learned and affects their performance.

It creates more disparities in education.

Does this also this decrease in attendance impact school funding.

Yeah.

Eventually will impact school funding.

Arizona has a backpack funding state, which means we get paid for students that are actually in our classroom during the first hundred days.

So during the first 100 days of this school year is when we started to see a little bit of instability.

Those kids were maybe not showing up every day.

And we want them to be back there.

And and our funding goes for the rest of the school year.

So our class sizes are going to vary, and it just impacts the culture and climate of every classroom.

Not knowing if your best friend is going to be at school impacts that student as well.

Well, we saw some of the impacts during Covid when you didn't have kids in class, but you also had the online learning alternative.

Do they also have that alternative?

Right now for any of those families who choose to stay at home?

A lot of school districts are being very proactive and offering that.

Reaching out to families saying, hey, we don't see your child at school.

Is it because of this?

Hey, we do have this program, Phoenix Union, very skillfully let their families know we want your kids to be in school.

But if not, here's an option an expanded their online availability for those.

I'm I'm glad you mentioned that particular union because they did make their social media, video that they put out on their various platforms where they were educating and informing families of what they can and cannot do or should and shouldn't do.

My name is from Cisco Pastor Rivera, and I'm the president of your school board.

Today, I'm here to talk to you about your rights regarding ice.

First, Ice must have a federal warrant signed by a federal judge before they can enter your school, your house, or your business.

If they do not have the official document, you may say, I do not consent to entry.

Do you think that that kind of approach and communication actually helps mitigate the fear?

I think it's great.

I mean, the school district president was the one who did the video.

He's from the community, grew up in the community, went to those schools and is speaking to them as a neighbor.

Okay, this is our right to be in school.

But here's some things to be thoughtful of.

Also, we want you to feel safe walking to school, getting on a bus, going to school, and being at school.

That alleviates a lot of the fears that our community is feeling.

I want to talk specifically about what Ice can and can't do on school grounds.

The president's administration rescinded Ice restrictions in and around sensitive locations like schools.

Legal experts point to the Fourth Amendment that bars Ice agents from entering schools without a judicial warrant.

Emphasis on judicial warrant.

Are some Arizona schools coming up with their own, particular, policies or enforcements to deal with those situations if and when they happen?

Yeah, like Phoenix Union as an example of meeting the neighborhood and making sure people understand a lot of school boards have passed safe zone policies that says our schools are safe zones.

We really want to ensure that our students are safe.

Educators for many years since I was in college, have had to be on the front lines of other violence coming near schools, and so we want to make sure as well as many school districts are setting up policies.

So people are focused in on the most important thing, keeping kids safe.

We don't know who's showing up all in black with covered masks.

So we need to make sure that they're the right people walking in.

And we will make sure.

And our union, as well as a lot of school boards and school districts, are making sure that people understand, number one priority, kids safe.

And we'll keep doing that.

I'm sure there are some families out there that are wondering, okay, what happens if immigration officials want access to students and or school records?

Are they allowed to have that access?

Yeah.

I mean, right now we have Sherpa, which is a federal law that makes sure that students have privacy rights.

But secondarily, most school districts don't.

And we never have asked immigration status.

We asked for birth certificates, and that's about it.

Most educators would never know if a student is here with documents or not, because we just look at them as some kid walking into our classroom who wants to learn.

Talk to me about the teachers and how this is impacting them in particular, because we've talked on, autism before about how this is impacting students, a rise in their anxiety, their stress level, even, you know, on their eating habits.

How are teachers dealing with this uncertainty right now, and especially when they look at how it's impacting their students?

I mean, the thing I learned as a second generation educator is my mom loved her kids.

She would call them her kids.

And I think every educator in Arizona thinks that the same thing.

We love our kids.

We love these students and want to see nothing about them grow and attain every opportunity.

So we take home a lot of that stress.

We're going to put on a brave face and keep them safe.

But we too are parents, uncles, grandparents and have to go home to our own families and carry that with us.

And it is unfortunate that that a lot of educators do carry that, but it is a real secondary trauma that happens when you're living in unstable times.

So when you're experiencing that as a teacher, is there any kind of special training that you provide for them?

Counselors, maybe, just to, you know, talk through some of the anxiety that they're feeling.

I mean, that's one reason why I love being part of a union is that we support each other outside of our workplace.

We are able to meet at picnics after school and really talk about, wow, that was a tough day.

How are you?

And see each other not just as Miss Garcia, eighth grade social studies, but as Marisol, a mother, a wife, somebody that you know, has three dogs and really enjoys her time at home.

We need places like that to be able to survive a lot of this.

You talked about, with me off camera.

You know, back when?

1070 SB 1070 was passed in 2010, which directly impacted your students at the time and your families that, you did not see the union, anywhere in that fight?

Talk to me a little bit about what the, A.D.A.

is doing right now to to support immigrant families.

In this education space.

You know, like you talked about, you're trying to provide a second home for students.

And how do you go about supporting them?

I mean, I think one of the reasons why I decided to to to become a leader in my union is that there was a conversation missing about the students that maybe are not the majority.

So undocumented students are students that are living in fear or in extreme poverty.

And one of the things that I think our union will always fight for is that working conditions are safe so that we can have great learning conditions, whether it's pay or benefits, or being very aware and just knowledgeable of what is happening on the outside policies that are being passed so that we can meet the students where they're at by pretending this isn't happening, we're not going to be able to help these students grow.

It is an additional responsibility, not one that I was trained for when going to get my credential, but it is something that is part of my community.

I'm there sometimes more than I'm at home and a school building, and so we need students to feel that.

And our union has really gone out of their way to say, we love our kids.

We love you as a member and as an educator, how can we make sure our community is strong when our schools are strong?

Our communities are so good.

Earlier in your career, you were a political organizer.

How has that experience really helped you meet the challenge in your current role?

Yeah, I mean, organizing is about having deep one on one relationships with people and seeing where your interests come together.

And that really came to fruition in my classroom.

My students wanted to learn and I wanted to teach, and I wanted them to understand, in my case, the history of America, civics, understanding the Bill of rights.

I wanted to work with colleagues that I cared deeply about, and I needed to know them.

And organizing is about really getting to know people about who they are and have same interests.

School being a school educator in Arizona has been tough.

This my 20th year has not been easy, but I love it and don't regret a day going into the classroom.

I do know that educators are creative people and creative and really care deeply about Arizona kids.

And so I feel like it's kind of all come to fruition at once.

We love our teachers.

We are so grateful for our teachers.

So for any families or even students, who may be watching right now and, and want some more information on just how to relate to everything.

Do you have any kind of support on the Ada website?

We do.

We have we have information to help not just students, but educators who want to understand the process of what's happening with immigration so that they understand their rights as educators, but also that they can understand how they can be supportive of educators.

So if you're not an educator, you want to figure out how to support educators.

Any time you see an educator say thank you, it means the world.

Just a thank you.

And also just know we're neighbors.

We shop with you.

We're at the soccer field with you.

We're at the concerts with you were your neighbors.

And we really want to work together to make schools great in the state.

Yes, absolutely.

Make them great and stay safe.

Yes.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Always a pleasure to see you.

Appreciate it so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that's our show.

Thanks for watching.

Always on there.

We'll see you next time.

Way back when that.