Migrant Minds: The border is no boundary for some Mexican students

August 30, 2008 - 11:06PM
Jeremy Roebuck

Adrianna Gomez wakes her 14-year-old son before dawn every morning, lays out his coat and tie and drives him across an international boundary just to go to school.

With a full day of classes at Pharr's Oratory Academy followed by soccer and tennis afterward, he often won't return to his spacious Reynosa home until nearly 12 hours later.

Angelita Martinez Morales also hoped her children could attend Rio Grande Valley schools. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested her Aug. 10 as she guided them across the river near Pharr.

She later told a federal magistrate judge she had to get her children - all U.S. citizens - back into the country before the start of the school year.

The two women may be divided by economic status, but ultimately both want the same thing for their children: the best educational opportunities they can provide.

Like hundreds of other families just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, they adjust their schedules, idle in bridge traffic every morning and sometimes break the law - all to send their children to U.S. schools.

"It's a sacrifice," said Gomez, 36, in Spanish. "But the river is inconsequential. It's just a problem of geography."

Some more affluent families - like Gomez's - attend legally by paying tuition to private schools or even buying homes to establish residency in public school districts. Her son, Ernesto, has his student visas in order and has been preparing to enter U.S. schools since his first English classes in kindergarten.

Plenty of others, though, ignore the rules. They provide fake addresses to enroll at public schools or - like Martinez - enter the country illegally in hopes of staying the whole school year.

While cities in the interior United States have only begun to seriously address this increasing immigrant population at their schools, this daily migration has been a way of life in the Valley for decades.

"In so many families, the community is not divided by a border like the land," said Elaine Hampton, a University of Texas-El Paso professor who has studied educational systems on both sides of the border. "It makes it hard to peg exactly where you live. What constitutes a permanent address?"


UNCERTAIN ENROLLMENT

Nobody knows exactly how many Mexican residents attend schools in the Valley, but some districts estimate they make up as much as 10 percent of their total enrollment.

A 1982 federal court ruling bars public schools from inquiring into the legal residency of students, but those enrolling must prove they live within the district - usually by providing a utility bill.

Some parents are so eager to have their children attend school here they will send them to live with an aunt or grandparent during the week and pick them up to spend their weekends in Mexico.

Others, however, "borrow" the addresses of relatives and friends to enroll their students even though the Mexican family never actually lived there.

"If they come and register with an address that's in the district, we can't deny them," McAllen schools spokesman Mark May said.

But the signs of illegal enrollment are everywhere.

Minivans with Mexican plates stack the pick-up and drop-off lines at schools in Hidalgo, La Joya and Brownsville.

Each day, students in school uniforms groggily amble away from the Roma-Miguel Alemán international bridge.

In the predawn fog, teenagers loaded down with book bags avoid eye contact with passersby because of past problems they have had with their district residency.

But 16-year-old Alemania was eager to explain why she risks the morning commute.

"My parents thought this was a better option," she said.



LACKING RESOURCES

Alemania, who spoke on the condition that she not be fully identified, attended public schools in Miguel Alemán, Tamps., until three years ago.

Although she says she preferred her friends in Mexico, she recognizes that the schools in Roma have better resources such as high-tech computer labs, extracurricular activities and English-language training.

The proliferation of maquiladoras in many Mexican border towns in the past decade has brought dozens of families to cities like Reynosa and Matamoros looking for work, but the region's public school system has not kept up with the growth.

Students in Mexican schools attend half-days in cinderblock buildings and go to class in shifts because of school overcrowding.

Parents must pay for uniforms, bus fare and supplies, and in some cases are expected to supplement the school's operating budget.

And a lack of secondary schools prompts many students to drop out after the elementary level. Only 66 percent of 15-year-olds south of the border attend classes on a daily basis, according to a 2003 Mexican government survey.

Fifteen-year-old Joseph has spent time in classrooms on both sides of the river. But as he crossed the Roma-Miguel Alemán bridge last week, he said there is no doubt where he would rather attend.

"Living in Roma is boring," he said. "But the education is much better."


‘IT'S NOT FAIR'

While Alemania and Joseph both know they are breaking the law, small districts like Roma don't always look at students like them as a problem.

They are often more eager to learn and their parents are more involved because of the effort their families have undertaken to secure their education, district spokesman Ricardo Perez said.

"It's not like they're dumping their kids over here," he said. "They're actively seeking out a better education."

And the higher the school's enrollment, the more state and federal money the district receives.

But larger, more affluent districts like the McAllen school system can't afford to allow students who live outside the district to attend its campuses, said John Wilde, director of student support services for the district.

In addition to straining school resources, students with limited English speaking abilities routinely score lower on standardized tests.

"It's a significant issue," he said. "Imagine if you're paying taxes on a half-million-dollar home because you want your child to go to Garcia Elementary, and then we have to transfer you to another school because Garcia's too crowded.

"It's not fair that there may be people that don't live in the district taking your child's spot."

Wilde's office investigates dozens of cases each year of students suspected of lying on their enrollment papers.

Using returned mail, reports from other parents and red flags from campus administrators, his employees drop by the listed addresses in the early morning hours to see who really lives where they say they do.

Lying on a public document is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, but the district rarely seeks prosecution against the parents. Expulsion is a more likely response.

A week into this school year, Wilde has already received 30 to 40 red-flag reports that the district plans to begin investigating in the coming weeks.


GREATER OPPORTUNITIES

Angelita Martinez, the mother arrested for bringing her children across the river, never even got that far. A federal judge sentenced her to 10 days of confinement in a federal detention center. The fate of her children - all of whom she said were U.S. citizens - remains unknown.

Adrianna Gomez, meanwhile, hopes to send her younger children to Oratory's school in Pharr once they reach seventh grade.

She says she has already seen the payoff for her family's sacrifices in her teenage son, Ernesto.

A confident 14-year-old who can speak eloquently in Spanish and English, he hopes to go to Yale University and become a lawyer after graduation.

"You can see a big difference between my friends here and over there," he said. "The opportunities over here are just greater."

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.ok

Dead man identified near Roma

August 13, 2008 - 7:06PM
Sean Gaffney

ROMA - Police identified a Mexican national found dead last week with a knife lodged inside his body, authorities said Wednesday.

The man U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered was Felipe Neri Alonso-Villalobos, a 35-year-old man who lived with family in Escobares and Roma, Starr County Sheriff's Office investigator Lt. Larry Fuentes said. He was found Friday night west of Roma near the Rio Grande and had suffered multiple gunshot and stab wounds.

"Now that we've identified him, we gotta try to determine a motive," Fuentes said.

Police have released few other details in the homicide case.

Investigators suspect Alonso-Villalobos was dead for several days when his badly decomposed body was discovered about 7 p.m. Friday.

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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.

Murder Victim Violently Attacked

Saturday , August 09, 2008 Posted: 07:33 PM
Starr County Homicide

FRONTON - Police say a body found Friday night was violently attacked.

Border Patrol found the victim Friday night on the riverbank in the town of Fronton, just west of Roma. Police say he had his throat slit, a knife was stuck in his chest, and was shot several times in the stomach. They estimate the body had been there for about three days.

Police are now working some leads and waiting on autopsy results. They have not released the victim's identity. They've only said he was in his mid-30s, Hispanic, and had a tattoo on his chest.

Body found in Starr County

August 9, 2008 - 6:56PM
Dave Hendricks

Anyone with information that may be helpful in this case is urged to call the Starr County Sheriff's Office at (956) 487-5571.

WEST OF ROMA -- U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered a decomposing body here Friday night with multiple gunshot and stab wounds.

A knife with a black handle was still lodged in the body, said Lt. Larry Fuentes of the Starr County Sheriff's Office. The man, described as about 5 feet 6 inches tall, in his mid-30s and of medium complexion, has not been identified.

Border Patrol agents found the body west of Roma near the Rio Grande and called the sheriff's office about 7 p.m. Friday.

Fuentes said he couldn't estimate the man's weight due to the body's state of decomposition. He estimated the man was dead for several days before his body was discovered.

"From what we've got, he might be a Mexican national living on this side (of the border)," Fuentes said.

"Right now our primary goal in this case is to ID this person," he said, adding his office will then move forward with trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the man's death.

Investigators are waiting for autopsy results, he said. Preliminary results could be available as early as Monday.

No suspects had been identified as of Saturday evening.

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Dave Hendricks covers general assignments for The Monitor.

Bilingual education court ruling particularly impacts Valley schools

August 3, 2008 - 4:35PM
Ryan Holeywell

McALLEN - A federal court ruling last week could affect every school district in the Rio Grande Valley.

The ruling forces the Texas Education Agency to overhaul its system for teaching and monitoring the progress of students with limited English proficiency by Jan. 31.

The impact could be especially strong here in the Rio Grande Valley, where 39 percent of students are LEPs, and every district has at least some students with limited English skills.

"...TEA has not met its obligation to remedy the language deficiencies of Texas students," wrote U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice in a 95-page opinion.

More than half the students in the Valley View, Hidalgo, Rio Grande City, Donna and Roma districts are classified as having limited proficiency with the English language.

"Obviously, we're not doing something right," said Ofelia Gaona, director of the bilingual department in Donna. "The only ones paying the price are the children."

The League of United Latin American Citizens and the GI Forum, which advocate for Hispanic-American equal rights, were the plaintiffs in the case.

Justice wrote that "the statistics for secondary LEP students are undeniably egregious."

The ruling cited a 16.3-percent dropout rate for LEP students who should have graduated in 2004, compared to 3.9 percent of all students.

The ruling also cited disparate test scores and retention rates between secondary LEP students and their peers.

"The failure of secondary LEP students under every metric clearly and convincingly demonstrates student failure, and accordingly, the failure of the ESL secondary program in Texas," Justice wrote.

Suzanne Marchman, a TEA spokeswoman, said the agency was disappointed with the judge's decision and would likely ask the Attorney General to appeal the ruling.

Marchman declined to respond to the ruling's specific criticisms of TEA, citing the pending litigation.

David Hinojosa, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he is hopeful - but not optimistic - that TEA will make changes that "give teeth" to the state's ESL programs. Those changes must be implemented for the 2009-2010 school year, according to Justice's ruling.

"These students have long been ignored, and it all starts with the state," Hinojosa said.

Hinojosa said if the state does not meet the Jan. 31 deadline, it would likely face some sort of sanction from the federal court. Arizona faced financial sanctions in 2005 for failing to comply with a deadline set by a federal judge in a similar case.

Justice also described "fatal flaws" in TEA's system for monitoring LEP students' performance, which fails to identify all LEP students and masks poor performance by aggregating data between multiple grade levels.

In Texas, LEP students receive bilingual education through sixth grade and take ESL instruction in grades seven and higher.

That system was implemented 25 years ago, but Justice wrote it is clear that TEA "failed to achieve results" in that time.

Nearly all LEP students in Texas are Hispanic, but according to the ruling, just 13 percent of them are classified as immigrants.

The ruling even cited a deposition of former TEA Commissioner Shirley Neeley, who said there's "not anybody in their right mind that would say these are good scores."

Hinojosa said there are no statewide standards that define what an ESL program really is, and ESL is implemented "at the whim of school districts." Gaona said she believes the bilingual and ESL programs schools use should be based on solid research.

"You can do practically anything to satisfy an ESL program," Hinojosa said.

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Ryan Holeywell covers PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.

Border fence may threaten access to Rio Grande

July 12, 2008, 10:27AM

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

MISSION — For months the federal government's border fence plans in South Texas have been attacked by land — property owners, wildlife advocates, land conservationists — but the next wave of opponents could come from the water — and they're carrying paddles.

Kayakers and canoeists will descend on the lower Rio Grande for events this fall aimed at raising the river's profile as a recreation hub and drawing attention to the impact the border fence could have on river access.

But before promoters can establish the Rio Grande — especially the lower sections near large border cities — as another option on Texas' long list of rivers, they must fight a decades-old stigma.

Paddlers share the river with Border Patrol agents patrolling in bullet-proof vests and smugglers of drugs and people. But on the water, they're hardly noticeable as the river twists and turns through farm fields and wildlife preserves, but it is the violent perception that persists.

Even though it forms Texas' 1,255-mile border with Mexico from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico, most of the Rio Grande — with the notable exception of Big Bend National Park — is a forgotten river in the minds of tens of thousands of recreational paddlers in the state.

In a recent letter to Roma Mayor Rogelio Ybarra, Texas Rivers Protection Association President Tom Goynes expressed his support for the planned river festival and his concern about the border fence. But perhaps most telling was the clear illustration of how novel the idea of using the lower Rio Grande was even for people dedicated to the state's rivers.

"It has come to our attention recently that the Lower Rio Grande is indeed a safe and legal place to paddle, and that rights for all U.S. citizens to do so are guaranteed by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo," Goynes wrote. "It's ironic that we only learned that the resource was available to us as a result of the government's plans to take it away."

Los Caminos del Rio, a nonprofit based in McAllen, recognizes that its Healthy Living Festival planned for Nov. 1 — to capitalize on any attention the border could receive before the national election three days later — is unlikely to affect the 85 miles of border fence slated for completion in Texas this year.

While not backing off its fence plans, the Border Patrol supports Los Caminos's efforts to get more people on the river.

Dan Doty, spokesman for the local Border Patrol sector, said "the more eyes we have out there the better job we can do."

Doty said he's thinking of buying himself a canoe to explore the river. "It's a great place for recreation; it's a beautiful, beautiful river."

For Los Caminos del Rio, more legal activity on the river — kayaking, canoeing, fishing — will discourage the illegal smuggling activity. When people raise safety concerns, executive director Eric Ellman points to the Friends of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge who have been giving canoe tours for years without incident. He also points out that Los Caminos del Rio has had hundreds of people on the river in the past couple years without any problem.

Even those predisposed to believe in the river and its safety sometimes find themselves fighting back the Rio Grande's stigma in their own minds.

In "The Tecate Journals: Seventy Days on the Rio Grande," Keith Bowden recounts his canoe journey on the river from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico in the winter of 2004. Bowden wrote that every time he thought about passing the large Mexican border city of Reynosa across the river from Hidalgo, Texas, he grew apprehensive because of the violent reputation.

Instead, all he encountered was a group of kids rough-housing in the river who were curious about his trip; and at the other end of town, a man too insistent in asking for a ride across the river to find work.

Still, Bowden thinks drawing people to the lower Rio Grande will be a "hard sell."

"I don't think most Americans have any interest in the river," Bowden said. "They view it as the province of smuggling."

Bowden said he thinks it will be easier to convince Mexicans because there is already a tradition of using the river for recreation.

And so far it has been.

Economic development officials in Mexican border cities, including Reynosa, are coordinating with Los Caminos del Rio. Last month, the small Mexican city of Camargo held its first kayak outing — complete with a beer sponsor — where attendees paddled from the Rio Grande up a tributary into the center of town.

Already, anyone traveling the river is more likely to see people on the Mexican shoreline — fishing, swimming, boating. There are more public access points and people tend to see it more for what it is — a river. Someone has even opened a water skiing academy upriver from Mission on the Mexican side.

Aleida Flores Garcia is trying to get something going on the U.S. side as well, but the border fence could kill it.

She and her husband, Jorge Garcia, have been working on their property along the river in Los Ebanos for years. They've cleared brush, put in a park and built a boat ramp. They plan to build a large thatched pavillion and hold fishing tournaments and dances. Garcia recently incorporated her business as the La Paloma Ranch Retreat.

But the federal government has sent her a condemnation letter. The border fence is planned to run across her property leaving most of it in the no man's land between the fence and river.

Garcia has a lawyer and is fighting the government, but other challenges have so far been unsuccessful.

"I need to fight for this little town," she said. "The nature itself is just too beautiful to be blocked by a wall."