Thursday, June 26, 2025

Guest Opinion | PUSD Board Member Dr. Yarma Velázquez: From Classrooms to Crackdowns: How Immigration Enforcement and Climate Trauma Threaten Pasadena Students

By Dr. Yarma Velázquez, PUSD Board Member

In Captivity Beyond Prisons: Criminalization Experiences of Latina (Im)migrants, Martha D. Escobar unearths the roots of a system that has long treated migration not as a humanitarian condition but as a crime. She illustrates how the U.S. legal and carceral frameworks have been mobilized to contain, surveil, and discipline Latinx immigrants, through detention, policing, and bureaucratic suspicion. Escobar’s work compels us to look at our current policies and practices through the lens of racialized captivity, showing us that what we’re witnessing today is not new, but rather an extension of a much older logic of state violence.

We’re seeing that story unfold in Pasadena right now. In recent days, ICE agents have been spotted at bus stops and transit centers, detaining people in broad daylight. At least six individuals were taken on Orange Grove Boulevard, a place where day laborers and working families wait each morning. These images send a chilling message: fear walks alongside our children as they head to summer school. Public space no longer feels safe.

These actions have sparked protests, letters of condemnation from local elected officials, and waves of trauma throughout the community. And yet, national leaders have chosen to double down on a criminalizing narrative. During a recent press conference in Los Angeles federal authorities claimed Los Angeles was overrun by “criminals” and directly linked that claim to immigration policy. This rhetorical strategy, casting immigrant presence as criminal threat, has dangerous consequences. It dehumanizes and emboldens enforcement. It signals that the trauma endured by immigrant families is not an unfortunate byproduct but a feature of our immigration regime.

And at the heart of this crisis are children. Some of the same students who were displaced earlier this year by the Eaton Canyon wildfires—who lost homes, routines, and any sense of stability—are now facing the possibility of losing their parents to deportation. Our school district is already stretched thin, trying to respond to rising needs for mental health care, staffing, and stability. Now we’re being asked to carry the emotional weight of federal policy too.

This isn’t just anecdotal. A 2023 review in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing documented high levels of anxiety, PTSD, and health issues in children exposed to wildfires—especially among Black and Latino communities. Another study from 2022 found that school closures due to fires lead to significant drops in test scores, especially in early grades. These losses hit hardest in the schools that already have the least.

Just as some students begin to rebuild from one trauma, they’re hit with another. A child who spent weeks in temporary housing now wonders if their mom will be taken away. A classmate who lost his home in a fire now worries ICE will be waiting at his bus stop. This is more than policy failure, it’s human harm.

And it’s not just a Pasadena problem. All across California, schools are trying to serve communities that are hurting and they’re doing it with fewer and fewer resources. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant policies add to the chaos, turning classrooms into places of fear.

Here’s the truth: in a state where the population is shrinking, immigrant families are not a burden. They’re our future. As of 2023, approximately 46% of children in the state California live in immigrant families, meaning they have at least one parent born outside the United States. This figure underscores the significant role that immigrant families play in the state’s demographic and cultural landscape (childrenspartnership.org). These families are woven into every part of our communities. Their success is our success.

California is also facing a serious labor shortage. A report from the Public Policy Institute of California projected a gap of 1.5 million workers by 2025, especially in fields that require vocational training or community college. Jobs in health care, childcare, construction, and public service are already understaffed. These are jobs that immigrants and their children already do and we will rely on them even more in the future.

Yes, automation and AI are changing the labor market. But many essential roles, caring for the sick, repairing homes, teaching children, can’t be outsourced to machines. These are human jobs. And immigrants are already doing them, often without recognition or protection.

Families come to this country in search of a better life. They sacrifice for their children’s education. And yet we continue to punish them—creating trauma, instability, and fear. We need to stop.

As a city, we have to stay focused. The mission of our school district is simple: educate children. That’s it. Landscaping, emissions rules, solar panels, and construction delays, these things matter, but they should never distract us from the bigger picture. Right now, our students are living through fires, displacement, poverty, and immigration enforcement. That’s enough.

We need discipline, clarity, and an unshakable commitment from every sector of our city to support that mission. We need to stand together and say clearly: these kids are not distractions. They are not burdens. They are not someone else’s problem. They are our responsibility—and our lifeline.

Yarma Velázquez Vargas, PhD. is the PUSD Board of Education Trustee for District 7.