Spanish Community Service Learning Lesson on Deportation and Private Detention Centers

by Ann Abbott

It was the week after spring break, and I had just returned from a wonderful yet long trip to Japan to see my daughter who is studying abroad in Nagoya. I was looking forward to seeing my students later that day, but I wasn't sure how I was going to make the class interesting and engaging.

Scrolling through my Twitter feed, I found just what --and who-- I needed: @tanyaboza.

I have followed Prof. Tanya Golash Boza's work for years: her blogs, her books, her articles. But it was only recently that I found her on Twitter. She is just as a smart and generous there as I had come to expect from her. She shared the series of videos about race and racism that she has developed for her students. She shares her publications and thoughts freely.

And on the morning when I needed inspiration, she provided it in this tweet:

I am pleased to share my latest publication with you, on how families experience the deportation of a loved one: https://t.co/DnStaA5mbJ pic.twitter.com/APQp7PPTPg

— 𝚃𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚊 𝙶𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚑-𝙱𝚘𝚣𝚊 (@tanyaboza) March 26, 2019

You can click on the link and have full access to the paper, which I did, and I immediately knew what I would do in class. (Remember, I teach in Spanish, but I often bring in materials that are in English as a springboard for discussions and activities in Spanish.)

"Punishment Beyond the Deportee: The Collateral Consequences of Deportation" Tanya Golash-Boza.

1. Students read the title and abstract. In pairs, and in Spanish, they discussed what they expected to find in the article. (Turned out, they were excited to read the interviews.)

2. Half the class read the introduction and "The Context of Mass Deportation" (pp. 1-3), and the other half read "The Collateral Consequences of Deportation" (pp. 3-4). Then they formed pairs and summarized their section for the other person. A few students shared what most interested them in what they had read so far.

3. I gave every student a number 1, 2 or 3. Students with #1 read "Arrest and Detention: Stressful Criminalizing, and Dehumanizing" (pp. 6-9). Students with #2 read "The Stress of Removal: Finances, Family Structure, and Abrupt Transition to Adulthood" (pp. 9-13). Students with #3 read "Postdeportation: Moving Forward" (pp. 13-15). After they read, they got together in groups of three and informed each other of the main ideas of the section they read. Again, a few students shared with all of us their thoughts and reactions to the information in the interviews. I asked how the interview data is different than the number and statistics related to immigration and deportation, and of course they mentioned things like being able to hear people's voices, seeing the emotional side of the numbers, etc. I reminded them that it is the same in our community service learning course; in class, we learn about immigration in abstract terms, but they work alongside immigrants in the community, hear their voices and learn from their individual stories.

4. I displayed the second paragraph of the "Discussion and Conclusion" section on the screen (p. 16 "Deportation practices and laws..."), and students read it. "Cuando hablamos de la inmigración,¨ I said, ¨estamos hablando también de la lucha por la igualdad de la mujer, por los derechos de los afroamericanos, contra el antisemitismo, por los derechos de los palestinos en Israel. Es una lucha para los derechos y la dignidad de todos."

Regresando a casa: Una guía para los retos y oportunidades después de la deportación

5. We transitioned to a document that friends and colleagues of mine from the Education Justice Project put together, in both English and Spanish, about what to do after deportation. "Hablamos de la deportación," I said, "como si fuera el final. Sin embargo hay un ´después´ y esta guía lo describe." Due to our limited time, students only read and analyzed the table of contents, but it was enough to elicit many reactions from them. They seemed especially thoughtful about the first section of the guide, related to preparing yourself mentally for deportation. Yes, that's something most people have not thought about.

Close to home

6. We have talked a lot about private prisons and detention centers and the perverse incentive to capture and jail humans in order to maintain occupancy rates and make money. However, I have sensed a certain level of student skepticism. I mean, it's hard to sign up for what you think will be a fun "Spanish" class and then be asked to flip all your notions of criminal justice and faith in the system. But since we were talking about deportation, I brought it up again. The Illinois legislature is considering a bill, HB 2040, to ban private prisons and deportation centers, and we listened to a witness describe (in Spanish, followed by English interpreting) the bad conditions in the private detention centers where she and  her child were held together--and then separately.

7. Finally, I reminded students that we can move from volunteerism to activism, even on this subject. We can support efforts to halt the construction of a private, for-profit detention center near Kankakee, and we can all contact our state representatives and ask them to vote "yes" on HB 2040.

This is the message I sent to my Illinois representative:

Dear Representative Marron,

I live in Champaign, and I write to ask you to please support HB 2040.

Whatever you might think about immigration and undocumented immigrants, for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers work on the perverse notion that non-violent offenders must be incarcerated. Indeed, many contracts stipulate that the state must fill these sites to near capacity with bodies. The for-profit prisons/detention centers demand that so that they can make a profit. The state then must continue criminalizing even minor infractions to keep the cells full. As I'm sure you know, people of color and poor people disproportionately bear the weight of this vicious circle.

Please support HB 2040. Our criminal justice system should work to keep communities safe, not to turn a profit for owners and shareholders. We want a society in which fewer non-violent acts are criminalized and fewer human beings are incarcerated and detained, not more.

Thank you, and please contact me if you have any questions.

Annie Abbott