Dispatches from Flyover Country: Four Appraisals of Impacts of Trump's Immigration Policy on Families, Schools, and Communities

Abstract

A university professor and high school ESL teacher, both based in Lincoln Nebraska, each write two short essays that detail implications of the Trump administration immigration policies for students, teachers, schools, and communities. The first two dispatches come from the transition period (after Trump won but while Obama still presided) while the latter two come from the 50‐day mark of the Trump presidency. Juxtaposing voices contrasts overarching impact with the local; juxtaposing chronologies allows comparison of political promises and threats to early actions and reactions.

Supporting LGBTQ international students in higher education.

“…The Trump administration had proposed and/or enacted legislation that threatened the visas of international students, separated and detained asylum-seeking families, refused to resettle refugees from select Muslimmajority countries, denied foster care to children in houses headed by same-sex couples, and allowed doctors to refuse health care to transgender people based on providers' religious beliefs. Hamann and Morgenson (2017) described the impact of the Trump administration's policies on their immigrant and Muslim communities, primarily in Lincoln, Nebraska. The ripple effect of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment is far reaching, affecting not only individuals and families but also particularly schools and places of employment.…”

Flipping Our Scripts about Undocumented Immigration

“…Meanwhile, deportation for some means death (NPR 2020)-while families left waiting at the border are destroyed (Garbus 2019). As Ted Hamann puts it (Hamann and Morgenson 2017), "Trump's deportations and threats of deportations may not stop the undocumented from looking for and finding work, but it will divide parents from children" (p. 134).…”

Campus Administrators’ Responses to Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy: Leadership During Times of Uncertainty

“…Hamann and Morgenson (2017) researched the effects of President Trump's rhetoric on small communities in Nebraska finding that as the investment in infrastructure construction continues "threats of deportations may not stop the undocumented from looking for and finding work, but it will divide parents from children" (p. 394) or force parents to send their children to live with other relatives. The authors predict that schools will close and that educators will lose jobs as immigrants disperse from their communities.…”