How Schools (and Communities) Need to Serve New Arrival Students

By Giselle Castaneda and Dr. Benjamin M. Drury

New arrivals are coming into the country every day, and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas is not the most welcoming of hosts. Stories of transporting new arrivals directly from the Mexico-America border to cities like Los Angeles and Chicago are now the norm on the nightly news. Families are being forcibly relocated — sometimes against their will — to these cities where they may or may not know anyone…and that is if they make its across the border. A recent report outlining inhumane treatment of migrants by Texas Troopers acting as part of a new initiative put forward by Gov. Abbott talks about razor wire-covered barrels in the Rio Grande, pushing mothers with infants back into the waters to return to Mexico, and creating barriers in the river to prevent people from crossing in the shallower areas.

In reality, if the families attempting this potentially fatal quest were inspired to come to the United States to find the “American Dream” when they arrive in Texas they soon learn in fact the dream is not as glittery as it may have been made out to be.

Imagine after perhaps months on the road walking and hitchhiking and taking buses and maybe a boat and a bike (absolutely not a plane) through dangerous landscapes with varying degrees of hostilities…