For many American families, immigration and seasonal starts are “bridges.” Order threatens its survival | US immigration

It’s been a tough year.

The Trump administration freezes funds first. Layoffsforcing many centers to close temporarily or permanently. Then ask Congress exclude Early childhood education program with a budget leak (White House Finally reversed the course).

Then, in July, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Executive Order Excluding some immigrants visit a series of federal plans, Including starting first. Its argument: The beginning of the head is equivalent to public welfare, which has been since unauthorized immigrants cannot obtain. Personal responsibility and job opportunities settlement (prwor) 1996. Moderator advocates are waiting to see if execution will begin this week or soon.

the term “UnauthorizedNot only those who are undocumented, but those who are legally entering the United States but are not eligible for public benefits such as asylum applicants; victims of trafficking; and victims of extended childhood actions (DACA), a program that protects people who are unfounded minors who leave the drive and allow them to work.

The beginning center says they No agreement Used to verify qualifications. For example, the program does not collect information about citizenship.

Attorneys from 20 states and a main start-up organization alliance File a lawsuit In federal court, the order was found unconstitutional. After the lawsuit, the government went back, though only slightly: delaying the enforcement of the rules until September 10 until the result of the legal challenge.

Experts say the executive order is a broader attempt to deprive immigrants of their rights and lack access to widespread public services. “On the surface, it seems to be to ensure that almost all public support is not available to unauthorized people,” said Mark Greenberg, who served as deputy attorney for the Department of Health and Human Services and served as vice chair in child and family management.

He said the government “has a very, very difficult case…this point the court’s legal question is, ‘Is the head starting to resemble welfare?”

He believes that this argument will be difficult to prove. First, benefits are almost always defined as cash assistance or their equivalent, benefits checks or electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards for food stamps. Head Start programming is not. Furthermore, PRWOR does not give federal agencies the power to define what the public interest is. Therefore, the government must argue that Congress always intends to define the head start as welfare, which is never done.

If the executive order stands, it is difficult to estimate the possible impact on the head start. It is estimated that the majority Nearly 755,000 Children currently enroll in school are U.S. citizens. The only one 1.5 million children under the age of 18 Resident in the United States in 2023, unauthorized, is the latest statistics.

However, a specific part of the beginning may feel the impact more deeply.

Immigration and the Seasonal Beginning (MSHS) Provide early childhood education and services 25,000 children His family works in agricultural labor. The children range from infancy to five years old, and the program currently operates in 34 states.

The term “immigration” used in MSHS does not refer to citizenship. “In our world, immigration is a family that moves within a certain distance from their work,” said Cleo Rodriguez JR, executive director of the National Association of Immigration and Seasonal Hosts (NMSHSA).

Nevertheless, 37-45% of all Unauthorized and ordered farm workers “Gives creepy attention to far beyond the family [in Head Start]Greenberg said. Parents may choose not to register eligible children to protect unauthorized family members or friends from discovery, denying their social mobility and educational opportunities, while immigration and seasonal heads start to provide social mobility and educational opportunities. In theory, law enforcement will apply to all families seeking first-start services.

Shortly after Head Start was founded in 1965, plan managers realized that the touring farm workers could not enter a location throughout the year. Immigration Head Start Beginning in 1969 Support these families. A seasonal start In 1999, warming weather caused by climate change allowed more agricultural workers to work year-round in one place.

The way MSHS works with another head starts in several ways. It also serves infants and children under the age of five. All registered children will receive health services such as developmental and vision screening and nutritional support.

According to Rodriguez, some key features of Head Start’s larger plan begin with immigration and the standards set by seasonal Head Start. The program takes children up to three years from the beginning, and starts early Just started In 1995. Again, it always provides a long time, so agricultural workers can spend as long as possible on site; regular head starts No extension All-day and year-round care until 1998.

“The program that supports agricultural families is actually a role model for everyone to start,” Rodriguez said. “We have been serving babies and toddlers. We have been extending for hours. We have been flexible.”

Each program must be different, and each plan depends on the length and yield of each harvest season. “The job in Nebraska doesn’t necessarily work in central Florida, and central Florida doesn’t necessarily work in central Michigan,” he said.

Change even occurs in the same center. Rodriguez said this is common, leaving growers asking MSHS staff to expand the program in a short time if the weather suddenly becomes more favorable.

MSH can even be open Saturday to seven days a week and can be open for a long time. “The plan could start deploying the bus at 4.35 a.m. and then get the kids to school and then put them back in bed,” Rodriguez said.

According to early childhood researcher Michael Lopez, the flexibility that makes MSH so useful for growers and families also makes the study challenging, designing the lead study when he was hired by the government from 1991 to 2005.

“We will do the evaluation at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year, and you will check the progress in the year,” he explained. “For MSHS kids, the defined academic experience may be three months for the location, three months for the location,” he said. In addition, “many of these measures are designed for English-speaking classrooms, not for students to learn the language.”

Nevertheless, Lopez said existing research supports the value of early education for children’s health and development, regardless of the program. “It has no doubt a positive impact,” he said.

Various Research Shows that migrant workers have the highest high school students Dropout rate In the country, frequent movements even require efforts to support the family due to the combination of language barriers.

So when Rodriguez Summer Internship Washington, DC plan. Since 2012, 49 interns have worked for the organization, including the National Caucus of United Farm Workers, Unidosus and national legislators.

Maria Espinoza participated in the program in 2021 and is engaged in agricultural research and policy before starting law school at a U.S. university this year. She is the youngest of the seven, and she was born in South Carolina immigrant parents during the tobacco harvest. When the family settled in the agricultural community in Immokalee, Florida, they sent her to a center run by the Redlands Christian Immigration Association (RCMA).

“This is one of the first organizations we interacted with after moving,” Espinoza said. She recalls going to class with her parents, interacting with her parents after working long hours in the field with her teachers and parents.

“They are tools for how we get into the community and across the United States,” she said, describing RCMA staff and centers as “the pillars of the community.”

Her two siblings found jobs at RCMA, and Espinoza’s older sister eventually started her own daycare business. Espinoza’s nieces and nephews are now attending charter schools in RCMA.

“[MSHS] “Doing a lot to fill all these gaps and building bridges so that families and their children can succeed,” Espinosa said.

According to Rodriguez, even if the executive order was rejected, families have become more hesitant to participate. Some MSHS parents are already Detained Through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“My parents were both farm workers and I did the jobs when I was a kid,” Rodriguez said. “So it’s very personal to me.”

However, he still has deep belief in the benefits of MSH and throughout the United States.

“We are still the greatest country with the greatest opportunity,” he said.