Eighteen-year-old Jonatan Pech sat in the passenger seat of his family’s sedan as their headlights pierced the morning darkness. His older brother, Cristian, gripped the steering wheel. The music shuffled between Houston rap to salsa and then R&B, lullabies for his sister Esme who slept in the backseat while his mom, Teresa, looked out the window, towards her son’s new life chapter.
The four had left Houston shortly after 4 a.m. that Tuesday for the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Texas A&M’s Corpus Christi campus. Jonatan had to check in by 8 a.m. for his July 8 freshman student orientation, dubbed “Islander Launch” by the university.
Family vacations weren’t a privilege they often came by, so Jonatan had an idea. “I was like, ‘After orientation, can we stay a little longer so we can, like, explore the city for a bit?’”
His mother, Ma as Jonatan calls her, said yes. A single mom, she immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teenager, pregnant with Cristian, in search of the illustrious “American Dream.”
Teresa, 51, has lived in Houston with her family for more than 20 years.
The two brothers had stepped up to take extra jobs and help with bills after they became estranged from their father. Out of the three siblings, Cristian was the first to go to college. Now, it was Jonatan’s turn, with the help of scholarships he received for outstanding grades and leadership. He wanted to celebrate with a visit to the Selena Museum, which is about 20 minutes northwest of campus, and then the beach, to let family stressors float away in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
They were driving through Refugio County, still about an hour away from the university campus, when Jonatan woke up to red, blue, and white lights in the rearview mirror.
“My brother had gotten pulled over because his beam lights were ‘too bright’, that’s what the officer had said, and then he asked my brother for his license, insurance, and ID,” Jonatan told The Barbed Wire. “And then at this point, the officer is talking with us, I guess creating small talk, asking, like, ‘Oh, where are you going?’”
Jonatan said the officer took everyone’s IDs and then came back and told them they were good to go. His brother got a warning for the alleged high beams. But before they could drive off, there was something else.
“Then he tells my brother and my mom to step out the vehicle. I was a little confused, but I didn’t think much of it,” Jonatan remembered.
He could see his brother through the car windows reading paperwork from the officer. His brother looked emotional as he turned and said something to their mom.
“He pretty much had to translate to my own mom that they were taking her,” he said. “It broke my brother.”
Watching from the rear view window, Jonatan wondered what the hold-up could be. The minutes ticked by and it was getting closer to the time he had to be on campus.
“She came back later crying, and she was saying, ‘Que me van a llevar,’ meaning that they were going to take her,” Jonatan said. “They took her, she grabbed her stuff, and then another car came, and then they put the zip ties on her, and then they took her.”
“That was the last time I saw my mom. I couldn’t even hug her, kiss her goodbye, nothing.”
Texas Has 111,000 Undocumented K-12 Students
Across Texas, students are returning to school as immigration enforcement remains a threat — whether or not students or their parents are U.S. citizens, on legal pathways to citizenship, or have ever committed a crime.
About 15% of K-12 students in Texas — or 890,000 children — have at least one undocumented parent according to FWD.us, a bipartisan 501(c)(4) organization that focuses on immigration and criminal justice reform. Their data shows an estimated 111,000 Texas kids are undocumented themselves.
As of July, nearly 1.5 million Texans “live in jurisdictions where sheriffs or police chiefs have agreed to train some of their officers to act as immigration agents in the streets of their communities,” the Texas Observer first reported. Refugio County, where Jonatan’s mom was taken, was one of the first counties in the state to sign such an agreement with the new presidential administration’s immigration efforts.
“The administration is trying to push, ‘We’re only going after criminals, we’re going after the bad guys, these despicable people that do bad things,’” Cesar Espinosa, executive director and founder of FIEL Houston, an immigrant-led civil rights organization, told The Barbed Wire. “But in reality, when you look at the numbers percentage wise, there are a small number of folks (who have criminal records).”
Espinosa said he got a call from Jonatan’s family about his mom shortly after the incident — one of an increasing number of calls he’s gotten this year about family deportations.
“This time last year, we were getting one or two deportation calls a month, if any. I mean on average, it was one or two a month. Right now we’re getting 15 to 20 calls a day of people who are getting picked up, who are having family members picked up, who are dealing with this immigration system,” Espinosa said.
“We’ve seen it all,” Espinosa said. Jonatan’s story stood out because of how quickly the events unfolded, but the general contours were consistent with many others.
Like the vast majority of those who’ve been detained, Jonatan’s mom has no criminal record, according to her attorney Karina Jimenez.
Jimenez told The Barbed Wire that including Jonatan’s mom’s case, her clients have tripled or quadrupled and estimates that “3/4th’s (of her new clients) have no criminal record” and said “it’s normal everyday people.”
The latest numbers from U.C. Berkley’s Deportation Data Project, the first centralized collection of individualized immigration enforcement data, show that across the country, people without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests. In early June, that number was up from about 21% in early May, before the Trump administration’s decision on May 21 to triple ICE’s arrest quota, according to Axios’ data analysis and reports.
“In Jonatan’s mom’s case, it was the brisk turn of events where it’s one of the happiest days of this family’s life — they’re going to take their the young kid to the orientation for a fully paid scholarship — and turns into a nightmare for them when their mom gets detained,” Espinosa said.
Regardless of status, researchers say the impacts of ICE raids and arrests pose a risk to all Texas children. Providers nationwide are calling for reforms to protect children’s mental health in the fallout from watching their parents taken to other students witnessing their friends’ lives upended.
“We’ve gotten calls from tios and tias who, maybe a parent went to work, and they just never came home and now they’re taking care of their children,” Espinosa said.
Headlines of arrests and deportations — like the father of three young children who was detained by ICE during a traffic stop in July while working a job for the roofing company he owns — have sparked social media rumors suggesting ICE will target schools once classes resume. Anonymous tips have fueled speculation, including one post in the Central Texas area, which claimed that immigration activities will be ramping up “to target families getting kids ready for school” and had been shared and liked by thousands of people.
While school districts in California have been more proactive in addressing community fears, national headlines this week drew sharp condemnation onto the actions of federal officials who on Monday detained — and later released — a 15-year-old teen with disabilities at gun point outside a school in Los Angeles in a case of “mistaken identity.”
He’d simply gone with his grandmother to help enroll a relative at the school.
“The release will not release him from what he experienced,” Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said during a news conference. “The trauma will linger. It will not cease. It is unacceptable, not only in our community, but anywhere in America.”
California districts facing down worried parents and community members have offered options like virtual classroom learning, while Texas districts have been more tight-lipped in their responses to the crisis of fear immigration officers have created across the country — despite the fact that earlier this year, an 11-year-old in North Texas took her own life after classmates bullied her by threatening to report their families to ICE.
Still, Austin ISD said there were no recent changes to any policies and pointed The Barbed Wire to an immigration and student support FAQ page on their website. According to their site, the district does not give immigration information to federal officials. However, the site makes it clear that federal agencies are allowed to “conduct enforcement activities at schools” after the Trump administration walked back a 2011 DHS directive that limited agents from enforcement at schools, churches, and hospitals. The site said that “Austin ISD is assessing the impact of this policy change.”
Fort Worth ISD sent a statement to The Barbed Wire saying they “do not ask about or collect information on the immigration status of students or their families. All student records are protected under federal law, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”
Still, families are encouraged to keep emergency contact information updated and to share any concerns with school counselors or campus principals.
“In the event a parent is detained during school hours, we ensure the safety of the student until an authorized adult can pick them up, in accordance with child welfare laws,” Jessica Becerra, news and information manager with Forth Worth ISD, said. “Fort Worth ISD will continue to monitor developments and share relevant updates to support the well-being of all students and families.”
Dallas ISD pointed The Barbed Wire to a January statement that read, “in 2017, the Dallas ISD board of trustees took the bold step of unanimously approving a resolution to designate all Dallas ISD schools as welcoming and protective TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW. We believe that ALL students deserve the opportunity to succeed, and we are dedicated to ensuring that they ALL have the resources they need to thrive. We are here to educate ALL students for success.”
San Antonio ISD and Houston ISD did not respond to requests for comment.
One school administrator from a Texas district who would only speak with The Barbed Wire anonymously said many districts are afraid to speak up, for fear of direct retaliation from Gov. Greg Abbott and threats of more essential funding cuts, especially after the passage of the school vouchers program this spring and dwindling public school funding. The administrator said some people may fear speaking up in their area because it could alert immigration authorities or law enforcement to their individual campuses.
Other school leaders told The Barbed Wire that they would not back down or shy away from providing safety, education, and protection for their students.
“They can try to scale back on supporting public education and all those things that they want to but, we’re still here. We’re still making things happen,” Jarvier Peeples, a Central Texas college career readiness advisor, told The Barbed Wire.
Peeples has been in education for at least a decade, advising high school juniors and seniors on career paths and guiding them through the college application process. As immigration enforcement ramped up in May, Peeples said many of his students were scared to apply to college or even show up to school.
“Even though it’s the last few weeks of school, some families decided not to even send their kids to school because of the risk of feeling that one day, my student is going to school, and the next thing I’m hearing they’re gone,” Peeples said.
“I have another student where, with summer work, I could only meet with them virtually, because their parents and the whole family decided, ‘We’re not going out except to do the most essential things,’” he said. “We’re still pushing forward to make sure that the goals and the dreams that these families, these students, are wanting to make happen, happen.”
‘We Can’t Ignore That Pain’
It’s not only educators stepping up to help vulnerable kids in immigrant and mixed-status families, it’s community members.
“For many first gen, I think we feel that pain, and we can’t ignore that pain. We feel it,” Monica Maldonado, founder of MAS Cultura, a non-profit elevating Latinx artists, told The Barbed Wire.
Maldonado started MAS Cultura in 2021 to give the Latino community the representation, opportunities, and cultural pride she said are too often been denied. After the deadly 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, she helped organize artists, fundraise, and curate community murals for the 21 victims in South Texas in an effort to enable healing through art. Now, in her hometown of Austin, she’s focused on giving back to her community by whatever means necessary.
“There’s hope that we can’t give up. And when you’re around these kids, I’m telling you, you can feel joy and you can feel hope,” Maldonado said. Throughout interviews with The Barbed Wire, she fought back tears.
In late May, a local Central Texas business reached out to Maldonado asking for organizational support after kids from mixed-status families from a nearby apartment complex started showing up at their office asking for supplies to color.
“Do you know any orgs helping families separated by the ICE raids happening?” said a text from May 21 sent to Maldonado and reviewed by The Barbed Wire. “They’ve taken several people.”
“They’re scared to even go out,” the text read.
“In the midst of the poverty they’re living in, the disparity of not having their parents, or their grandma, their family, anyone, the kids, they still are happy and have this joy that the world needs honestly,” Maldonado said. “Tienen el corazon lleno de algo que nos falta a mucho de nosotros,” she explained in Spanish. In English, that’s “They have their heart full of something that is missing from a lot of us.”
Volunteers with her organization are mobilizing to collect backpacks and other school supplies to deliver directly to families in need for a back-to-school event this August. She said it’s been tough to get donations and grants, especially since many major companies have cut back on spending due to DEI cuts.
“It’s fucking hard,” said Maldonado. “We’re running on ‘E.’”
“‘We can’t abandon them. We have to show up,’” Julio Herrera, MAS Cultura’s programming director, told Maldonado after they did a site visit to one of the local apartment complexes. “We gotta make sure that they know, like we’re not gonna abandon them.”
In East Austin, Jeannette Valdez Duran, CEO and President of Mobile Blessings from the Heart, hosted an early August back to school block party serving more than 300 high school and elementary school aged children. They donated backpacks, haircuts, books, and food. Both she and Maldonado say they help fill the gap left behind by other organizations that require families to have IDs in order to get help and support.
“I tell the people that this is a safe haven for them. This is not a place where we judge each other. It’s a place where you are welcome,” Valdez Duran said. “We’re not about hate, we’re not about race. We are about hope, love, faith, and kindness — and helping each other out with whatever someone’s needs are.”
‘Absolutely Barbaric’
The day his mom was taken away cuffed in zip ties, Jonatan and his siblings continued onto Corpus Christi so he could make freshman orientation.
“I went through my orientation, I tried to stay present,” he told The Barbed Wire. “I tried not to really think about it much, but obviously, there’ll be times when the orientation presenters said, ‘I want to make sure that y’all give thank you to y’all parents for coming out here,’ Like, they made me tear up.”
“I was still grateful I was able to make it with or without my parents,” he added.
After orientation, the siblings didn’t make it to the beach or to visit the Selena museum. Instead, they went back to Houston, and spoke at a press conference humbly asking the community for help to raise funds and reunite with his mom.
While most freshman college students have been planning dorm room decorations and shopping for laundry baskets and shower caddies, Jonatan has taken extra shifts at Pluckers, working around the clock to raise $20,000 for his mom’s legal expenses in hopes they can help bring her home. He’s also working to save money for his own college expenses, and to help raise and provide for his 15-year-old sister who’s starting 10th grade in Houston.
“Me and my brother have been working more, we’ve been helping out with the house, grocery shopping on our own, just to keep the house going, keep everything going, making sure that all the spirits are high, that we have good morale, and that we just don’t get down,” Jonatan said.
“I can cry all I want, but crying is not going to change anything. It’s not going to fix anything, right? It takes action. So I’ve been trying to reach out to pretty much anyone I can, try to speak with anyone I can, try to put, I guess, my story out there, that way, like it, can bring attention to it, not just my story, but all the countless other stories of kids splitting up with their families.”
On Aug. 8, exactly one month after his mom was taken, and a little more than two weeks before Jonatan was set to start classes, his mom had a court hearing.
That day, Jonatan sent two texts with an update.
“we lost”
“we can appeal but its a like 3 month process and takes money”
For now, his mom is stuck in a detention center in the Rio Grande Valley awaiting trial, according to their family attorney. Karina Jimenez told The Barbed Wire that her client was denied bail by the judge despite having no criminal record. Jimenez said that being “denied release is absolutely barbaric.”
Her bail denial comes after a directive from Trump — issued the same day Jonatan’s mom was arrested — that prevents judges from granting bond to anyone held in ICE detention who came to the United States without documentation. Jimenez told The Barbed Wire she believes it’s a tactic to pressure people to voluntarily leave the country.
For now, Jonatan and his family are still deciding if they’ll keep fighting Trump’s immigration game — and risk their 51-year-old mom being held longer in potential inhumane detainment conditions —or choose deportation in the hope she can reunite with family in Guatemala.
“My mom had told us if anything does happen, whether today or later on, that just to keep ourselves positive that we have each other, our siblings, we have one another, and we’re gonna be okay, and that to not worry about her if she does get sent back.”
Jonatan’s move in day at Texas A&M Corpus Christi is Aug. 20. He’s majoring in architecture.
“I want to be able to create things that can outlast time and continue to help and reshape the world for a better place,” Jonatan said.
He remembers telling his mom about his dream career.
“She would always tell me to design her house whenever I finish with school and in a way, it makes me want to keep pushing,” he told The Barbed Wire.
Jonatan must maintain a 3.25 GPA as part of his college program to guarantee he’ll be able to transfer to College Station after a year in Corpus.
“Everybody has gone through their own struggles, through their own fights, own battles, but then it’s just like, ‘Are you going to become a victim to your past and trauma — or are you going to become the person who you want to be, or the person that you’ve dreamed about, the person who you want to build a future for yourself?’”
He has no doubt he’ll get it done.
“She had to make sacrifices to put me where I am today and obviously I can’t just let those sacrifices go by.”