ELL News Headlines

Professor Zug teaches Family Law, Advanced Family Law, and American Indian law at the University of South Carolina and has been writing about the impact of the U.S. government's immigration policies on undocumented families for many years. She writes, "One thing few people currently realize —despite reassuring words from the administration— is many of these families will most likely never be reunited… Hundreds of these children have already been sent to state foster care facilities across the country where they have become wards of the state. Their care and custody decisions will be handled first by state welfare agencies and then by a state court. Reunification becomes less likely as the length of separation increases."

Days after a coalition of civil rights and student advocacy groups sued the Boston schools to find out how much information the system shares with federal immigration officials, the outgoing superintendent fired back, challenging what he felt were accusations that the district targets immigrant students. The groups, led by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, allege in the lawsuit that the school system and Superintendent Tommy Chang hand over student information to immigration authorities.

NPR's Susan Davis talks with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha about her new memoir which tells the story of her research that helped expose widespread lead poisoning of Flint, Mich.'s drinking water.

Boston Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang is stepping down two years before the end of his contract after a three-year tenure marked by controversy and a new lawsuit that says the school district has shared student information with federal immigration officials.

Psychologists say that for migrant kids already in government facilities, a short separation from parents may be enough to cause lasting damage. See more on this topic from AP News.

President Donald Trump wants to combine the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor into a single agency focused on workforce readiness and career development. But the plan, which was announced during a cabinet meeting Thursday, will need congressional approval. That's likely to be a tough lift. Similar efforts to scrap the nearly 40-year-old education department or combine it with another agency have fallen flat.

Jodi Goodwin, an attorney in Harlingen, Tex., has heard more than two dozen variations of those stories from Central American mothers who have been detained for days or weeks without their children. So far, she has not been able to locate a single one of their offspring. "It's just a total labyrinth," she said. Even though the Trump administration has halted its policy of separating illegal border crossers from their children, many of the over 2,300 youths removed from migrant parents since May 5 remain in shelters and foster homes across the country. The U.S. government has done little to help with the reunifications, attorneys say, prompting them to launch a frantic, improvised effort to find the children — some of them toddlers.

Hurricane Maria severely disrupted Puerto Rico's public schools when it hit Sept. 20, 2017. Now, the island's education system is poised to undergo a controversial transition. In response to the storm as well as falling enrollment and the government’s long-term financial woes, the Puerto Rico Department of Education plans to close nearly 25 percent of its public schools before the 2018-19 school year begins. Under the plan, 263 schools will close and 847 schools will remain open.

After weeks of insisting Democrats were ultimately responsible for the migrant-child crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump did an about-face Wednesday, reversing a policy that has separated thousands of migrant children from their families — most of whom are coming from Central American countries. But meanwhile, thousands of children will remain in federal custody and are entitled to certain education services while they remain there.

Erik Hanshew is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in El Paso, Texas. In this column, he writes, “The president Wednesday signed an executive order ending the policy, but that changes nothing for my clients or the thousands of other parents who have already lost their kids at the border."