On a recent Thursday, Carolina woke to loud, high-pitched electronic beeps from the bulky wrist monitor the federal government makes her to wear.
The nerves set in. That morning, she had two immigration appointments in downtown San Francisco. The only saving grace: Ernesto Rodriguez, a social worker at her son’s elementary school in the Portola neighborhood. He was set to accompany her to the check-ins, as he has for about 10 other families from his school.
For at least 50 immigrant families in San Francisco facing immigration appointments or court hearings, public school teachers and staff have become a lifeline.
Educators in 20 schools in the district have been trained to accompany students and families to immigration appointments as part of a collaboration between the school district, a nonprofit and the teachers’ union.
Missing a single appointment can mean a deportation order. For families too frightened to show up to a federal building alone, the presence of a familiar face can mean the difference between staying in the country, and being forced out.
Still, fear kicks in. “I feel kind of strange … I feel bad, anxious, my back hurts,” Carolina, a pseudonym, told Mission Local that morning.
She decided to keep her two sons, 6 and 14, home from school while she went downtown.
Rodriguez, who had planned to pick her up at the school, quickly changed course and went to her home.
The educator accompaniment program is a collaboration between the San Francisco Unified School District’s RiseSF office, which supports immigrant families; the nonprofit Faith in Action; and the teachers union.
If an appointment or court hearing results in an arrest, educators are trained to call the Rapid Response Hotline to find a lawyer to file a habeas petition for the immigrant’s release.
And though volunteers across the country accompany immigrants to court and check-ins, the San Francisco program is the only known example of educators organized and trained to attend appointments with students and students’ families. The teachers’ union, for example, covers the cost of a substitute teacher for the time away.
Since January, 137 students and families in the San Francisco school system have been accompanied. None have been arrested so far.
The morning check-in with ICE
After Carolina went downtown, she joined a line on the sidewalk outside 630 Sansome St., where dozens of immigrants waited, gripping folders with documents that could determine their future.
Carolina trembled as she neared the front of the line outside the federal building where she was scheduled to complete her first appointment of the day.
At the front, she said goodbye to Rodriguez, who would wait outside the building during her appointment, texting her sporadically to check in.
“My freedom has been stolen,” Carolina said as she stepped inside the building, where she would go through security and into her appointment alone. The woman behind her, who spoke Cantonese, cried as she, too, entered the building.
Fear of showing up
Most days, at least one immigrant walks into 630 Sansome for an appointment only to be arrested and taken through a back exit to a detention center, according to volunteers and activists who camp out during the day in front of the building.
But staying away from the building carries its own risk. One of the main ways the federal government deports people is by ordering them “removed in absentia” for missing a court hearing or appointment.
Jenny Tseng, a social worker at Aptos Middle School, saw how close a family can come to that outcome. One morning, she was meant to meet two middle-school sisters at their school and take them to their immigration court hearing. It was too dangerous for their parents to chaperone them.
Like Carolina, the family never showed up to school that morning. Tseng, two school counselors, and a volunteer went into emergency mode, called the mother, convinced her to meet them at a cafe and then took the girls to the courthouse.
In the end, the judge at San Francisco’s immigration courthouse rescheduled the case. But had they not shown up, the sisters could have been ordered removed, opening them up to arrest.
“That is how they win,” Tseng said.
Carolina’s first appointment that Thusday went smoothly.
Afterward, her 6-year-old son called to ask if she was done and would be home soon.
“I’m almost done, because now I have the check-in with the other immigration office,” she told him in Spanish.
He said he loved her.
“Yo también te amo, papi,” she said — I love you too, sweetie. She added, “Que Dios te proteja.” May God protect you.
Carolina’s second appointment
And so it’s on to the second appointment, a check-in at the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program on Tehama Street run by BI Incorporated, the private company contracted to provide ankle monitors and other surveillance gear to track immigrants.
Carolina reflected on the accompaniment program. “Thank God, along the way I found angels,” she said.
Matt Alexander, co-director of Faith in Action and a San Francisco school board member, said touch points between educators and immigrant families can also greatly improve how students fare at school.
When he takes children to these appointments, he said, “Their whole body is tense — they’re experiencing it as trauma. Once we leave and it’s clear nobody’s being detained or deported, and the case is moving forward, they’re relieved, they’re happy.”
A web of support
When Carolina initially had an issue with her asylum application but did not have a lawyer, Rodriguez the social worker pooled his money with Stefanie Eldred, another social worker at their school, to pay for a consultation.
“I’m just going to do this shit to do it,” said Rodriguez, whose mom is from Mexico. He said that in his family, supporting the community is a no-brainer. “It’s something you do.”
Rodriguez said he has accompanied around 10 parents of children from his school. He has also surveyed students to see who needs help connecting with immigration resources, and has found at least 30 such families at his school.
At International High School in Potrero Hill, which has a large number of immigrant students, Antoine Lagarde, a senior seminar instructor, noticed two of his students were worried and asked them what was going on.
The two students, 16 and 17, confided that their sister, a Peruvian mother of two whom they live with, was having problems with her immigration case. She was terrified she would be arrested at an upcoming court hearing, and taken from the family.
Lagarde, who also volunteers with Faith in Action, invited the sister to one of the group’s meetings.
The 34-year-old mother was distraught. “I was really worried, in a bad way. I didn’t want to eat,” she said in Spanish.
The contact with the teacher and Faith in Action meant she went to court with an entourage: Lagarde, another teacher from International High School, a SFUSD-contracted attorney who was there to observe, a Catholic priest, and Alexander. In the end, the woman’s hearing was rescheduled for next year.
“They gave me the strength to face going to court,” the woman said. The relationships between educators and families is “building a web of community support” to counteract an immigration system that creates fear.
Rodriguez, the social worker, recalled the moment when he got back to his school after a morning at an appointment with the mother of a second-grader. The mother had asked him to let her daughter know all had gone well
He found the child on the playground and delivered the news.
“She got so happy, it was as if someone said, ‘It’s your birthday,’” Rodriguez said.
He watched as she ran to tell her friend the news, and then grabbed her friend’s hand to go play.
“This is the work that I love to do,” Rodriguez said.
A ride home
The day’s work with Carolina was done. As he got ready to drive her home, Rodriguez helped her log in to an SFUSD app where she could check her children’s grades and message teachers.
From the front seat of Rodriguez’s car, she used her phone to log in to the online course she is taking through City College. “She felt good. It was really sweet to see,” he said.
After dropping her off, Rodriguez felt relief. It had gone smoothly. He hopes to help more families. “I really want to get the word out so newcomer families do not feel like they’re alone,” he said. “We are not shying away from this.”
