This week on Fronteras:
· Refugees continue to resettle in the U.S. but struggle to find affordable places to live.
· Ill El Salvadoran woman removed from hospital gets released from Alvarado detention center.
· New Mexico is reassessing how it tests students. Some parents want to see a change.
· Los Vaqueros Rio Grande carry on a 45 year tradition – riding horses from the Mexican border to the Houston Stock Show in honor of Hispanic heritage.
· Winning on and off the court. A girls basketball coach scores points with her diverse team of students outside the rim.
Resettled Refugees Struggle To Make Ends Meet
Nearly 47-hundred refugees have resettled in the United States since President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning refugees from seven Muslim majority countries. Refugee Processing Center data show more than two-thousand came from those seven nations.
Federal judges struck down parts of the president’s order and since then, the U.S. refugee resettlement program has been quietly doing its work. Administration sources say revisions to the order are underway. Meanwhile, refugees fleeing their home countries face a lot of uncertainty and for those who have already arrived here, anxiety runs high. Taryn Mento of KPBS explains how many refugee families in San Diego are struggling to make ends meet.
Ill Salvadoran Immigrant Released From Detention Center
The ill Salvadoran woman who was removed from her Texas hospital bed last week has been released. Sara Beltran Hernandez suffers from a brain tumor located behind her eyes and needs surgery. Immigration agents allegedly made her leave a Fort Worth hospital after being diagnosed and took her back to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado because she is undocumented. Her lawyers filed a new lawsuit in federal court hoping to set a precedent for injunctive relief for anyone detained who gets hospitalized. After the woman’s family paid her $15-thousand dollar bond on Thursday, she was released. Dallas attorney Chris Hamilton initially handled her case.
Chris Hamilton :“She wanted medical care. She was in severe pain. She has a brain tumor, and she was not getting access to medical care and was very concerned. She was a refugee from El Salvador who was fleeing violence in that country and possibly also some domestic threats. And so she came to the United State, at some point sought asylum. And so it is just a terrifying case all around and just a heartbreaking story.”
Beltran Hernandez, now in a wheel chair, remains stable and will live with her family in New York. Officials say Beltran-Hernandez entered the country illegally in 2015 seeking asylum and an immigration judge ordered her deportation last month. She had been in detention for more than a year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says she has no known criminal history.
New Mexico Rethinks Standardized Testing
Turning now to New Mexico where the Public Education Department has been unwavering in its focus on using standardized tests to quote, “raise the bar” for education. But New Mexico State Senators recently approved a resolution that proposes a new paradigm of student assessment. Hannah Colton of KUNM has more. ‘
Coach Helps Diverse Girls Basketball Team On And Off The Court
South of Dallas, the Duncanville Pantherettes are a girls basketball power house. They’re in San Antonio this weekend in search of their 10th state basketball title. KERA’s Bill Zeeble visits a school that’s undergone massive demographic change, yet through it all, these girls keep winning.
Los Vaqueros Rio Grande Make Riding History For 45 Years
What happens on the Texas border with Mexico has a way of making the news these days. But there are those who travel the roads from the border who are making the trip symbolically for reasons of heritage and history. Houston Public Media’s Travis Bubenik caught up with Los Vaqueros Rio Grande and found out why their trek on horseback means so much to them.
