English those #s more.
I've always distrusted the numbers for undocumented immigrants. If you know that a misstep can get you sh*tcanned, (1) you avoid problems but (2) if you are a problem you move on. Your support network knows that if they report you, you're a goner, but also your support network is thick with others of similarly indefensible status.
Saw a night-school student tonight for the first time since November. Asked how her father was. She's in dutch with the night-school folk for barely having a presence. But she was for 6 or 7 months my day-school student and we'd bantered and joked in class. A month after she went awol and her #s fell off a cliff, she showed up when I was the night school proctor, "Hey, Janko, what happened?" "I have my father was detained by ICE. mom had a part time job, but I need to work to pay the mortgage and feed us--3 younger brothers and sisters. And pay his lawyer." I fed that info to the top dog, but it doesn't matter to the school district. I include it in weekly notes for other night school teachers, top dog edits it out. Top dog says bad things will lead to bad consequences in weeks--but it's been months. Top dog knows. And Janko's barely tady, around. Proc hovorime v stejnom jeziku, kdyz musime. And, no, it's not anything West Slavic. Fake names. Language. FERPA, y'all. The rest is true.)
Think about it. If her father did something bad, would "Janko"/siblings/wife/network inform on him? I think not. If he were caught, they'd be screwn--his network is composed of peers, just as present without statutory approval. If they informed on him, they'd be just as screwn. Not informing has 0 cost. Informing has high cost--high economic cost. Plus the non-trivial emotional costs. (Janko in November was near tears, weeks after the event--that was in October.)
As for "Janko," she's not doing great. Working more hours than is legal for her age. And her dad's still held at a detention center in a neighboring county--and has a lawyer. Family can see him sometimes. No word on court date--or if there will be one. He was under final order of deportation, didn't self-deport within 90 days so it's a felony, didn't appeal in the legally mandated, by our democracy, time limit--and that was well over a decade ago. Dad counted on non-enforcement of federal statute. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out--because his case is one of many duplicates.
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