A Frightening Deja Vu – Nov 22, 2024

Amy Kobeta, Communications Director at Children First, lived in Phoenix, Arizona when a harsh anti-immigrant law passed. She wrote this piece.

Trump’s cruel promise to indiscriminately round up immigrants poses a real and present danger to children and their families across America. I know because I was the president of the Phoenix Union High School District Governing Board when the state of Arizona passed its infamous anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, aka, the “show me your papers” law.

In essence, SB 1070 gave police officers and sheriffs free reign to stop anyone and demand proof of citizenship. Local and state law enforcement could arrest people without a warrant if they had “reasonable suspicion.” The law also gave officers the green light to coordinate with or notify ICE.  

The impact was immediate. Even if they could “show their papers,” many students were afraid to go to school. Parents avoided medical appointments for themselves or their children. Hispanic residents stopped calling the police for help, even when a child’s safety was at risk.

When our county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, realized that students in school were legally protected from harassment, his posse – armed with rifles and machine guns – took position outside of schools as a form of intimidation. At subsequent Phoenix Union school board meetings, students, parents, and advocates lined up to plead with us to close the schools out of concern for student safety but we couldn’t.

The worst was when students would come to school and tell their teachers that their dad, mom, grandfather, or uncle were missing. Were they arrested? Where are they detained? Were they deported? The heartbreak, the fear, the confusion – it was a lot for a kid to manage.

Children must never be separated from their parents. We can debate immigration policy but there is no question that children must stay with their families. They must not be orphaned by public policy. They must not be locked up in cages again.

The actions of the past Trump Administration and the plans of the future one prove they’re fine with tearing families apart, so PA leaders must start to prepare local strategies. National data suggests that five million children are at risk of being separated from their parents when the President-elect follows through on his campaign proposals.

Children First recommends one inventive step for Governor Shapiro, Mayor Parker, schools, and the court system: revive the online technology that was a lifeline during the pandemic. (Read our letter here.)

If Phoenix Union had remote learning in 2010, it might have been a tool for us to keep students engaged and safe at home. Today, every PA public school has a cyber school program that can support students but schools should plan on more virtual students and do more to ensure quality instruction.

Other ways we can implement technology to protect people who are being targeted are in the healthcare and legal systems. Telemedicine kept folks healthy during the shutdowns; the wheels of justice continued to turn via remote court hearings. Let’s ramp them up again.

As an elected school board member when SB 1070 passed, I heard incredibly distressing stories from students, parents, and my Hispanic constituents. I worked hard to get the message to parents that their children were safe and valued, and that the district didn’t monitor anyone’s immigration status. It was what I could do against a hateful state law.

I hope my Governor, Mayor, and PA Courts will do everything they can – starting now – to keep families together in the face of national tactics to split them apart.

A new four-hospital collaborative will host
students at their locations to learn about
entry-level jobs across different departments.
Other regional companies like Closets by
Design, PECO, Comcast, Independence
Blue Cross, and Vanguard are also participating. 

Partnerships like these bring stability and
success for our young people and the economy.