How An Immigration Raid Near A Small Texas Town Touched A Whole School District

“We had kids who were scared to death that when they got out of school that day, they wouldn’t see their dad again or their mom again.”

By Stella ChavezMarch 15, 2019 12:57 pm, , ,

From KERA

The day of the raid still haunts principal Tammy Mariani.

On August 28, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raided a Northeast Texas factory that makes vehicle trailers. In the nearby Honey Grove Independent School District, nearly two dozen children have parents who were arrested and detained by ICE agents.

“We had kids who were scared to death that when they got out of school that day, they wouldn’t see their dad again or their mom again,” said Mariani, the principal at Honey Grove High School.

In Honey Grove, about 90 miles east of Dallas, everybody knows each other. Kids grew up together. They go to church together.

So it didn’t take long for word to spread about the raid. Moms called schools, afraid agents were headed to their homes. Students at schools cried. Counselors were called in.

“It was just extremely difficult, because it affected everybody,” Mariani said. “[It was a] really hard day.”

Agents from ICE arrested nearly 160 workers at the factory, called Load Trail. It’s about a 20 minute drive from the high school.

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