Some families who crossed border for better school leaving US now

     New York, May 21 (AP) For the last two months of their life in the United States, Jose Alberto Gonzalez and his family spent nearly all their time in their one-bedroom Denver apartment. They didn't speak to anyone except their roommates, another family from Venezuela.
     They consulted WhatsApp messages for warnings of immigration agents in the area before leaving for the rare landscaping job or to buy groceries.
     But most days at 7:20 am, Gonzalez's wife took their children to school.
     The appeal of their children learning English in American schools, and the desire to make money, had compelled Gonzalez and his wife to bring their 6- and 3-year-old on the monthslong journey to the United States.
     They arrived two years ago, planning to stay for a decade. But on February 28, Gonzalez and his family boarded a bus from Denver to El Paso, where they would walk across the border and start the long trip back to Venezuela.
     Even as immigrants in the US avoid going out in public, terrified of encountering immigration authorities, families across the country are mostly sending their children to school.
     That's not to say they feel safe. In some cases, families are telling their children's schools that they're leaving.
     Already, thousands of immigrants have notified federal authorities they plan to “self-deport,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
     President Donald Trump has encouraged more families to leave by stoking fears of imprisonment, ramping up government surveillance, and offering people USD 1,000 and transportation out of the country.
     And on Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, potentially exposing them to deportation. Without Temporary Protective Status, even more families will weigh whether to leave the US, advocates say.
     Departures in significant numbers could spell trouble for schools, which receive funding based on how many students they enrol.
     “The amount of fear and uncertainty that is going through parents' heads, who could blame somebody for making a choice to leave?” said Andrea Renteria, principal of a Denver elementary school serving immigrant students. “I can tell them as a principal that I won't let anybody in this school. Nobody is taking your kid. But I can't say the same for them out in the workforce or driving somewhere.”
    
     Rumors of immigration raids on schools became a turning point
     When Trump was elected in November after promising to deport immigrants and depicting Venezuelans, in particular, as gang members, Gonzalez knew it was time to go. He was willing to accept the tradeoff of earning just USD 50 weekly in his home country, where public schools operate a few hours a day.
     “I don't want to be treated like a delinquent,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “I'm from Venezuela and have tattoos. For him, that means I'm a criminal.”
     It took Gonzalez months to save up the more than USD 3,000 he needed to get his family to Venezuela on a series of buses and on foot. He and his wife didn't tell anyone of their plan except the single mom who shared their apartment, afraid to draw attention to themselves. Telling people they wanted to leave would signal they were living here illegally.
     They sent their children to their Denver school regularly until late February, when Gonzalez's phone lit up with messages claiming immigration agents were planning raids inside schools. That week, they kept their son home.
     “Honestly, we were really scared for our boy,” Gonzalez said. “Because we didn't have legal status.”
     In the months following Trump's inauguration, Denver Public School attendance suffered, according to district data.
     Attendance district-wide fell by 3 per cent in February compared with the same period last year, with even steeper declines of up to 4.7 per cent at schools primarily serving immigrant newcomer students. The deflated rates continued through March, with district-wide attendance down 1.7 per cent and as much as 3.9 per cent at some newcomer schools.
     Some parents told Denver school staff they had no plans to approach their children's campus after the Trump administration ended a policy that had limited immigration enforcement at schools.
     The Denver school district sued the government over that reversal, saying attendance dropped “noticeably” across all schools, “particularly those schools in areas with new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred.” A federal judge ruled in March the district failed to prove the new policy caused the attendance decline.
    
     Attendance dropped in many schools following Trump's inauguration
     Data obtained from 15 districts across eight additional states, including Texas, Alabama, Idaho and Massachusetts, showed a similar decline in school attendance after the inauguration for a few weeks. In most places, attendance rebounded sooner than in Denver.
     From 2022 to 2024, more than 40,000 Venezuelans and Colombian migrants received shelter or other assistance from Denver. Trump said during the campaign he would begin his mass deportation efforts nearby, in the suburb of Aurora, because of alleged Venezuelan gang activity.
     Nationwide, schools are still reporting immediate drops in daily attendance during weeks when there is immigration enforcement — or even rumours of ICE raids — in their communities, said Hedy Chang of the nonprofit Attendance Works, which helps schools address absenteeism.
     Dozens of districts didn't respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they feared drawing the attention of immigration enforcement.
     In late February, Gonzalez and his wife withdrew their children from school and told administrators they were returning to Venezuela. He posted a goodbye message on a Facebook group for Denver volunteers he used to find work and other help. “Thank you for everything, friends,” he posted. “Tomorrow I leave with God's favor.”
     Immediately, half a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian women asked him for advice on getting back. “We plan to leave in May, if God allows,” one woman posted in Spanish.
    
     Immigrant families are gathering documents they need to return home           Countries with large populations living in the United States are seeing signs of more people wanting to return home.
     Applications for Brazilian passports from consulates in the US increased 36 per cent in March, compared to the previous year, according to data from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Birth registrations, the first step to getting a Brazilian passport for a US-born child, were up 76 per cent in April compared to the previous year. Guatemala reports a 5 per cent increase over last year for passports from its nationals living in the United States.
     The size of the exodus and its impact on schools remains unclear, but already some are starting to worry.
     Trump's offer to pay immigrants to leave and help them with transportation could hasten the departures.
     Gonzalez, now back in Venezuela, says he wouldn't have accepted the money, because it would have meant registering with the US government, which he no longer trusts. And that's what he's telling the dozens of migrants in the US who contact him each week asking the best way home.
     Go on your own, he tells them. Once you have the cash, it's much easier going south than it was getting to the US in the first place. (AP)
    
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)