Editor’s Word: This text was written for Mosaic, an impartial journalism coaching program for highschool college students who report and {photograph} tales beneath the steering {of professional} journalists.
A visit to Walmart was a routine errand for Joshua’s household – a fast, easy cease for family necessities or groceries.However with ICE standing guard at locations that Latino households frequent, on a regular basis outings have develop into crammed with concern and danger, forcing San Jose highschool college students like Joshua into obligations their dad and mom often would have dealt with.
The close by big-box retailer “was crawling with ICE, so we couldn’t go there for a while,” he mentioned, describing one adjustment.Joshua, 18, whose title Mosaic has modified to guard his household, was born in america and thus has birthright citizenship. However his dad and mom and grandparents don’t. Now, to guard them, he’s develop into the first driver for the household.
As a toddler of undocumented immigrants, Joshua has all the time been conscious that his household may get deported. However for the reason that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, started arresting and imprisoning immigrants in neighborhoods and business areas in San Jose in late January, he’s needed to take care of his worst concern probably turning into actuality.
“It’s scary knowing that my parents could just disappear, and I won’t know what happened to them until I hear it from the authorities,” he mentioned.
Helplessness and stress are among the many feelings teenagers like Joshua are experiencing amid the every day menace of ICE raids.
“It’s just a lot of anxiety because they’re my parents,” he mentioned. “We’ve just been scared. I’ve been scared, like if someone pulls over one of my parents on the freeway, or on their way to work.”
However regardless of the emotional turmoil, Joshua mentioned reaching out for psychological well being help isn’t an possibility.
“I don’t want people knowing that my parents are immigrants because it just feels like that will draw attention.”
In response to Silver Creek Excessive College social employee Kayla Marshall, many teenagers preserve their struggles to themselves.
“I think there is a narrative around being unsure of who on campus is safe,” she mentioned. As faculties, “we get federal money and state money, so certain students might just feel more or less comfortable talking about their immigration status with people that they don’t know.”
Marshall is one among two social employees serving the two,100-student highschool.
Heather Malin, a remedy intern working at two excessive faculties within the San Jose Unified College District, mentioned that whereas faculties have many assets obtainable, college students may battle with an absence of course.
“There’s visible concern and awareness about keeping students safe,” she mentioned.. “I think what might be missing is that if there are resources, they’re hard to find. It’s hard to know where to look.”
Highschool scholar Joshua agrees that help isn’t publicized effectively sufficient.
“If there is any support, I don’t know, so they feel nonexistent,” he mentioned.
Marshall, of Silver Creek, mentioned faculties are in a troublesome place. “As the federal regulations change every day, school staff are kind of deciding each moment: Are they going to do what is legal versus do what is right? Sometimes, it’s not going to be the same,” she mentioned.
Along with having social employees, therapists and counselors on campus, many San Jose faculties lean on the Invoice Wilson Heart to offer college students and their households with psychological well being help.
The group offers housing, psychological well being companies, and different applications for youth in Santa Clara County. Aubrey Mastrangelo, its behavioral well being division director, works with shoppers ages 16 to 24. Lots of them have expressed confusion and anxiousness about the specter of deportation, even when they themselves aren’t weak.
“The worry sort of overtakes a lot of other things. Obviously we can’t wave a magic wand and say, ‘Oh, don’t worry, nothing will happen,’ because we don’t know,” she mentioned. As a substitute, counselors attempt to assist shoppers stability issues and remedy a few of them. “We’re also just helping them have tools to cope with their worry.”
The middle offers help for psychological well being struggles and gives assets to deal with an encounter with ICE, like authorized consultations and contingency planning.
“Let’s say something happened, and Dad was suddenly gone. What things would you need to have in place that’ll just help you feel a little more reassured?” Mastrangelo mentioned, describing how workers may assist a shopper kind a contingency plan.
It’s distressing to think about household life immediately upended.
“I just want people to know that it’s so drastic that my parents have a plan if they get detained by ICE and deported,” he mentioned.
As federal exercise escalates in San Jose and across the nation, Mastrangelo mentioned it’s necessary to not neglect youth psychological well being.If households have skilled rising up in an setting the place issues don’t really feel secure and safe as a result of a mother or father or a beloved one could be deported at any minute, she mentioned, “the ramifications can be seen long beyond that, into young adulthood and adulthood.”
Nanki Kaur is a senior at American Excessive College in Fremont.
Native psychological well being assets
Invoice Wilson Heart – San Jose1671 The Alameda #201, San Jose, CA 95126(408) 243-0222www.billwilsoncenter.org
Fast Response Community Hotline(408) 290-1144
Psychological Well being Sources for Undocumented Peopleimmigrantsrising.org
San Jose Metropolis School Help ProgramsAdvocacy Management for Immigrant Help Servicessjcc.edu/college students/support-programs/almass.aspx
Initially Revealed: April 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM PDT
