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FLEEING MEXICO VIOLENCE Families flee to Southern Oregon to escape violence in Michoacan, Mexico Comment By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 5, 2015 at 11:00 PM By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 5, 2015 at 11:00 PM --> How you can help To donate money for medical treatment and care packages for families fleeing cartel violence in southern Mexico, call Charlie Bauer of Southern Oregon Education Servic... » Read more X How you can help To donate money for medical treatment and care packages for families fleeing cartel violence in southern Mexico, call Charlie Bauer of Southern Oregon Education Service District at 541-245-4595. » Social News Families fleeing drug cartel violence in southwestern Mexico’s crime-ridden Michoacán state have taken refuge with relatives living in Southern Oregon, leaving local schools scrambling to accommodate the surge of Spanish-speaking students. Since mid-February, 148 kindergarten through 12th grade students from Michoacán and the neighboring Guerrero state have enrolled in the Medford School District, impacting nine elementary schools, both middle schools and North and South Medford high schools. At least 17 students from southwestern Mexico had enrolled in the Eagle Point School District since winter break and are staying with host families or relatives in the area, said Phil Ortega, the attendance, student services and homeless student support facilitator for the district. “And there could be more,” he said. “These are just the families we've identified who have been forthcoming about why they are here.” The Southern Oregon Education Service District has made contact with about 20 families from Michoacán who are attending schools in the Phoenix-Talent School District. Many of the children from Michoacán left their homes at night wearing only the clothes on their backs, said Charlie Bauer, the SOESD's coordinator of English Language Learner and migrant education. Violence, extortion, ambushes, kidnapping, drug trafficking and shootouts are rampant in Michoacán, where drug cartels clash with one another, vigilante militia groups and government forces. A travel warning issued by the U.S. Department of State warned U.S. citizens to defer nonessential travel to Michoacán and prohibited U.S. government employees from “traveling by land in Michoacán except on federal toll road 15D during daylight hours.” The warning said: “Armed members of some self-defense groups maintain roadblocks and, although not considered hostile to foreigners or tourists, are suspicious of outsiders and should be considered volatile and unpredictable. Some self-defense groups in Michoacán are reputed to be linked to organized crime.” In January, the Los Angeles Times reported that at least 25 people had been killed in Michoacán over the course of the month “in a string of ambushes, clashes and other shootings involving vigilantes, drug traffickers, civilians and the army and federal police.” “These families have been through trauma,” Bauer said. “It’s pretty dramatic. It’s absolutely heartrending.” In one instance, men in hoods had entered the residents' home carrying machine guns and told them to leave before “shooting up” the entire house. “They just considered themselves lucky to be alive,” Bauer said. Families seeking asylum in the U.S. go to the nearest port of entry, where they are placed in a detention facility until they can be interviewed by an officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to determine whether they have a credible fear of persecution, said local immigration lawyer Kevin Stout, a partner at Stout Law. “If they do, then a family member (from the U.S.) signs an affidavit of support, and they are paroled into the United States pending deportation proceedings,” Stout said. Without work or access to federal assistance programs, the families are dependent on their American relatives for food and housing, Stout said. An immigration judge — there are two in Oregon — will hear their asylum claim in an expedited hearing. But unless they can prove they will suffer persecution because of their race, religion, national origin, political opinions or membership in a particular social group, they will be forced to return to Mexico, Stout said. “The overwhelming majority of the people arriving here will be deported,” he said. Nonetheless, they typically have about six months between when they are paroled into the U.S. and their immigration hearing, giving them a brief but welcome respite. “They just know they aren't in Mexico anymore,” Stout said. The vast majority of the people arriving from Michoacán are women and children whose husbands and fathers have stayed behind to seek work in other areas of Mexico, Bauer said. If at least one of their parents seeks agricultural labor during their stay — however brief — in the Rogue Valley, children can qualify for migrant education and the SOESD gives them a care package of staple foods, toiletries and clothing. Otherwise, the SOESD recommends local agencies that can provide assistance. Several local churches are trying to raise money to pay for cancer treatments for a single woman with two children, one of whom is here and the other is in Mexico. The woman was being treated in Mexico but cannot access or afford medical services here, Bauer said. Five years ago, the woman’s husband, father and five other family members were kidnapped by the cartel and are assumed dead, he said. Children enrolling in a local public school do not need to provide proof of citizenship, only proof of residency — for example, a relative’s utility bill. “The majority of them are exceptional students, but they don’t speak any English,” said Terri Dahl, Medford’s supervisor of federal programs and school improvement. About 20 percent of Medford students are identified as Hispanic and, of those, about 15 percent receive English Language Learner services. The district previously averaged about two to three bilingual staff members at each of its 10 Title 1 schools and provided bilingual staff members at the non-Title 1 schools as needed, explained Dahl. But in response to the recent surge of Spanish-speaking children, the district hired seven additional part-time and full-time bilingual staff members, extended one part-time ELL teacher to full-time, purchased additional Spanish-support materials and provided backpacks full of school supplies to several of the newcomers. Superintendent Brian Shumate, his cabinet and the school board are responding to the need and making the resources available, Dahl said. The secondary students attend two or three ELL classes, where they work on language skills, and take other classes, where they receive support from ELL staff. Those in elementary school receive language instruction two to three times a day and get help in regular classes form ELL support staff, Dahl said. On Thursday, Margarita Duron, an ELL assistant at Jackson Elementary School, worked with a small group of newcomers, including two who had arrived the day before. She pointed to a picture of a young girl eating and had the students repeat after her, "The girl is eating." ELL students typically receive 40 minutes of language instruction a day, explained Jan Frazier, an English language development teacher at Jackson. "But these students get that plus two other times during the day," she said. As of last week, nine newcomers were attending Jackson Elementary School and, although they are in the third, fifth and sixth grades, they meet in the same group to be taught basic English words and phrases, explained Frazier. The arrangement also allows some of the students to be with their siblings so they feel a bit more comfortable in their new surroundings, she added. So far, SOESD staff have visited the families of about 50 of the 148 Medford students and, of those, about half qualify for migrant education, Bauer said. In Medford, migrant summer school is offered to kindergartners through second-graders at Jackson Elementary School, third- through sixth-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School and seventh- through 12th-graders at Central Medford High School. Dahl said that because several of the families are doubling up in homes, they are considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act and are receiving extra support through the Maslow Project. Children have shared stories about their homes burning down, and some parents said they left Mexico because they feared for their sons as the cartel was targeting and kidnapping young boys, Dahl said. “Some of the students have witnessed horrific atrocities to family members, including murder and kidnapping … and we’ll be providing counseling and additional supports for them,” she said. Call Bauer at 541-245-4595 for information about how to donate money for medical treatment and care packages. Reach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or [email protected] . Follow her at www.twitter.com/teresathomas_mt . By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 5, 2015 at 11:00 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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