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NASSAU COUNTY, N.Y. — It’s a world away from the hallways of a public high school in New York.
Roosevelt Schools Supt. Dr. Shawn Wightman made a trip at his own expense from Nassau County, New York to San Marcos, Guatemala, to make a special delivery for a student.
When asked if Alvaro Velasquez’s story haunted Wightman, he said, “Yeah. It’s very difficult as a superintendent, a father, to think about if something like that were to have happened to any of my kids.”
Last May, only weeks away from his high school graduation, Velasquez was randomly picked up by ICE and never made it to his graduation.
“He wasn’t a hardened criminal or anything like that, didn’t have any type of record. That was the moment when everybody realized that this is a real thing,” Wightman said.
Velasquez was taken to a detention center in Texas, where he spent months alone, before self-deporting to Guatemala.
In September, Wightman visited the detention facility because he felt Velasquez deserved his cap, gown and diploma. But he was turned away.
“A very stark reality for me going in there, because there was a barrier,” Wightman said.
He knew he needed to try again.
After refusing to give up, Wightman took two plane rides and a five-and-a-half-hour car trip through the foothills of Guatemala, where he was finally reunited with Velasquez and his family.
“This is amazing for me. He helped me. And he supported me, for all this time,” Velasquez said.
“When he got detained, it really upset a lot of us,” Wightman said.
In Roosevelt, where the student population is 65% Latino and Hispanic, it was only the beginning.
Since Velasquez was detained, three other students in Roosevelt have had their lives upended by ICE.
One was detained, another is likely to be deported, and a third, whose father was detained, now has to work to support the family.
Velasquez came to the U.S. alone when he was only 16 and has been through so much.
“I’m not feeling I’m alone. I know I have him and my family,” Velasquez said.
He also has his diploma from a man who taught him not to abandon people you care about.
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