Current Events 7350 by Juana Flores

Inside the Detention Center

96floresjuana — 2025-06-11 10:41:40 UTC

Watching this video of 19 year-old Ximena Arias-Cristobal sharing her experience in a detention center after being detained by ICE, made me feel upset for several reasons. Ximena shed light on the experiences of many other detainees, some that were very tough to hear. Ximena was brave enough to speak about this issue, especially considering how traumatizing it can be to see and hear these stories. Detainees were treated unfairly, to the point where they suffered serious health complications. The inhumane treatment that this young college student endured while being detained reveals the harsh truths about how our government handles immigration cases. Ximena took an important step forward by shedding light on these human rights violations in our country and giving voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. I cannot even imagine how she felt knowing and hearing everything they were telling her. It made me think about all the other innocent people who go through this daily during this current administration in our country. Being that I'm also a student who has the privilege of being born here and going after an education, still brings me fear for my family and loved ones who don't have the same opportunity like me. And knowing that I'm not the only one feeling this way, angers me.

International Students vs Travel Ban

96floresjuana — 2025-06-19 03:51:39 UTC

Reading about the hardships our current administration is creating within our education and immigration system today, is beyond disappointing. Often times we (people of color) are brought down from the goals we are setting ourselves, and just when we are starting to follow our dreams or take opportunities, we are left with no choice but to backtrack. An example of this is the story of a 19-year-old Venezuelan student who is currently on a student visa, attending college in the states. However, now she's facing the fear of not being able to come back into the country if she decides to pay back her family a visit home. Unfortunately, she is not the only one facing this fear. Many members of the Latino community continue to face this fear even when they have followed the rules and regulations in a country they saw as an opportunity to a better life. It frustrates to see how this administration continues to target my community by reinforcing these types of barriers in our present day to prevent them from becoming successful. You would think we would live in a period of time when everyone is treated fairly and equally in the U.S., but that is not what our current administration is telling or showing us.

NYC Schools to Expand Family Communications

96floresjuana — 2025-06-25 03:16:20 UTC

This recent news article states how the Department of Education will now be translating up to 12 different languages. This week, the Panel for Educational Policy approved this decision in order to promote equity and family engagement. This new policy also includes the prohibition of using students as translators during sensitive discussions such as parent teacher conferences/behavior issues. The new policy will begin this upcoming school year in the Fall. I believe that non-common language families will finally receive the services that they're entitled to and we can see how this can positively impact these bilingual families by fostering greater inclusion and understanding their language. By implementing this new policy, we can hope to see an increase of parental involvement in their child's school progress. It will also help prevent miscommunications, in order to support the student's success. For example, having to translate documents at a very young age can be extremely burdening (I've been there before). Sometimes it would bring so much anxiety and confusion because there were some words or information that wasn't so easy to deliver to your parent. I remember so many moments where me and my dad would be frustrated when I wasn't able to explain something right in Spanish. Reading about this new policy helped me gain recent insight on the vast linguistic diversity happening now in our city. It makes me feel happy and confident that these bilingual families will have an easier path with comprehending school policies, events and their child's progress because the policy will take some weight of students shoulders from having to translate confidential communication to their parents/guardians.