2009 Network Summer Project - U.S. Immigration Policy and Families

Over 100 students from Sacred Heart schools around the country make Goal 3, a social awareness that impels to action, come alive in a very special way through participation in any of the Summer Service Projects sponsored by The Network of Sacred Heart Schools.

Developing an awareness of social justice issues and determining how to respond to them have been essential components of Sacred Heart education from the society’s inception. Since the early 1980’s the Network has offered its students opportunities to participate in hands-on, social justice immersion experiences. An essential theme of the projects is to engage the students in partnerships with the adults and children of different cultures, backgrounds and abilities to work together to find solutions to inequalities in their communities.

Students from six different Sacred Heart schools arrived to participate in this year’s Network Summer Project at Carrollton on Saturday, June 20th. The program began by exposing students upon arrival to first-hand accounts from two Mexican-American women living in southern Miami-Dade county who had worked their way out of the “migrant stream” to become teachers.

To emphasize Miami’s diversity and the role migrants have played in establishing different areas in Miami, students traveled to various areas including: “Little Havana,” a Cuban-American neighborhood in central Miami, “Little Haiti,” to work with Haitian children in a summer camp program, various monuments remembering the “Bay of Pigs” incident, and “La Hermita” chapel, which honors those who have lost their lives at sea while attempting to reach freedom in our country.

To continue their efforts to understand and appreciate the legal and illegal immigrants in our communities, students met, in a very emotional session, with Carrollton teachers, maintenance workers, and parents. They shared their difficult journeys to our country as well as the significant sacrifices that they made in order to live in a land freedom and to raise their children here. These insights were reinforced when a local immigration attorney brought some of his current clients to share stories with the students about their struggle to gain legal status and their efforts to avoid deportation, especially when it would mean separation from their children.

The week culminated with a visit to the U.S. Immigration Court in downtown Miami. Students were presented with a case study, reference material, and were asked to prepare for a “mock trial.” The participants split into two teams: one representing the Department of Homeland Security and the other representing the illegal immigrant who was facing deportation. The well-respected and experienced immigration judge presiding over the case invited the students for lunch to discuss the possible options in the case and answer any questions. Further, the teams worked with the two prosecuting attorneys and two defense attorneys, respectively, to prepare an in-depth analysis of the case study and to develop arguments to either “Let Her Stay” or “Send Her Away.” The final day, after three hours of questioning witnesses and presenting arguments, the judge rendered his decision and congratulated the Sacred Heart students for participating in a courtroom experience comparable to a graduate lesson in law school.

Dr. Von N. Beebe, Director of Community Learning