These two organizations, AMOR and SEAFN are working to eliminate issues that affect their communities, which are communities that represent many of our students. Some of these issues such as family separation and deportation can affect many of our students and their families. The interesting thing about these organizations is that they are very grassroots, growing out of a need that arose from these communities, and created by community members. The cases that they are currently working on are "rapid response" cases directly related to the current political climate, and trying to help those in their communities in danger of deportation and family separation.
I am unsure of the legal status of the students in my class because it is not something that we monitor, and my district does not have a policy dealing with legal status. However, I know that there are some students, or their families, that are at risk of deportation. To me, as a teacher, it is my job to teach the students in front of me as best as I can. That means supporting their content, language, and social/emotional needs. Legal status is not a factor that I worry about when it comes to teaching these students because it is our job as teachers to provide the best education that we can and be as supportive as possible to all of our students. However, I think as teachers we should reach out more to students and families to make sure that our classrooms and buildings are safe for all students regardless of legal status. There is a stigma of discussing legal status for students and families because there is a fear of being reported and deported, but we need to find a way to address these issues without having to openly discuss immigration status. Luckily as a Social Studies teacher, there are many areas that I can adapt my curriculum to discuss issues involving oppression and injustice, which can fold into discussion about current events. This is more difficult for other subjects but not impossible.
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