Champlain Valley School District letter says international students targeted for deportation
Update: A federal judge said Thursday that she will prevent the Trump administration from ordering hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status to leave the country later this month.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would issue a stay on an order for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the country, sparing them until the case advances to the next phase. Their permits were to be canceled April 24.That includes two Nicaraguan students at Champlain Valley Union High School who were being included in the deportations.During a hearing, Talwani repeatedly questioned the government’s assertion that it could end humanitarian parole for the four nationalities. She argued that immigrants in the program who are here legally now face an option of “fleeing the country” or staying and “risk losing everything.”Original story as follows: Two international students in the Champlain Valley Union School District are facing possible deportation due to a shift in federal policy that is affecting the immigration status of more than half a million people here legally in the United States, according to a letter sent to members of the community this week.CVSD Superintendent Adam Bunting sent a letter on Wednesday that said two high school students at Champlain Valley Union High School, who are originally from Nicaragua, were allegedly told they have just days to leave the United States before they are deported by federal agents. In the letter, which was obtained by NBC5, the district said the students are being targeted due to an order from the Department of Homeland Security that seeks to prematurely strip some groups of Nicaraguan immigrants here legally in the United States of their status before the original deadline.Bunting said watching the order directly impact their community has sparked shock, outrage and a motivation for everyone to come together to fight for those who are facing the same circumstances.”This isn’t about whether you believe in DEI or not. This is about human compassion. And this is about caring for our young people,” Bunting said. “That is a value that certainly pervaded Vermont for as long as I’ve been here. You know, we take care of the people in our community.”That order, which applies to about 532,000 people who are part of the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program, targets people who came to the United States since October 2022 and were given two-year permits to live and work in the United States, according to The Associated Press.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register. The new policy impacts people who are already in the U.S. and who came under the humanitarian parole program.CVSD said the students are in the United States legally and have not violated any rules, but are still being treated unfairly.NBC5 also learned that the students are the nieces of Wilmer Chavarria, superintendent of the Winooski School District. Chavarria was born in a Nicaraguan refugee camp before coming to the United States. He said his family was promised protection in the U.S. under the parole program before those protections were revoked by the Trump administration. He said he hopes that his family’s story sends a clear message.”We as a family will remind them that their dignity is important that their lives have value,” Chavarria said. “Even though the government might tell them otherwise and treat them like they’ve less than humans.”Under the Biden administration, the parole Program provided protections for people from those counties and allowed them to come to the United States if seeking asylum from persecution and other dire circumstances in their home counties. “We trusted the United States to respect its own word and to respect its own promises to the immigrants of his country,” Chavarria said.However, now those protections are being revoked following an executive order from President Donald Trump, leaving more than half a million people in the U.S. forced to leave or be deported. “To many people this might just be a number, might be one more immigrant. But these are our family members, these are our friends, these are ourselves,” Chavarria said. “We are human beings with aspirations, with dreams, with fears like everybody else.” CVU administrators said the move to deport these students “contradicts the very values Vermonters work to instill in our young people.””The community at CVU has done a remarkable job taking care of these students in their final weeks at our school. Even so, the way in which these students are being impacted by a change in federal policy is deeply troubling,” Bunting said. Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Update: A federal judge said Thursday that she will prevent the Trump administration from ordering hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status to leave the country later this month.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would issue a stay on an order for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the country, sparing them until the case advances to the next phase. Their permits were to be canceled April 24.
That includes two Nicaraguan students at Champlain Valley Union High School who were being included in the deportations.
During a hearing, Talwani repeatedly questioned the government’s assertion that it could end humanitarian parole for the four nationalities. She argued that immigrants in the program who are here legally now face an option of “fleeing the country” or staying and “risk losing everything.”
Original story as follows:
Two international students in the Champlain Valley Union School District are facing possible deportation due to a shift in federal policy that is affecting the immigration status of more than half a million people here legally in the United States, according to a letter sent to members of the community this week.
CVSD Superintendent Adam Bunting sent a letter on Wednesday that said two high school students at Champlain Valley Union High School, who are originally from Nicaragua, were allegedly told they have just days to leave the United States before they are deported by federal agents.
In the letter, which was obtained by NBC5, the district said the students are being targeted due to an order from the Department of Homeland Security that seeks to prematurely strip some groups of Nicaraguan immigrants here legally in the United States of their status before the original deadline.
Bunting said watching the order directly impact their community has sparked shock, outrage and a motivation for everyone to come together to fight for those who are facing the same circumstances.
“This isn’t about whether you believe in DEI or not. This is about human compassion. And this is about caring for our young people,” Bunting said. “That is a value that certainly pervaded Vermont for as long as I’ve been here. You know, we take care of the people in our community.”
That order, which applies to about 532,000 people who are part of the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program, targets people who came to the United States since October 2022 and were given two-year permits to live and work in the United States, according to The Associated Press.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register. The new policy impacts people who are already in the U.S. and who came under the humanitarian parole program.
CVSD said the students are in the United States legally and have not violated any rules, but are still being treated unfairly.
NBC5 also learned that the students are the nieces of Wilmer Chavarria, superintendent of the Winooski School District. Chavarria was born in a Nicaraguan refugee camp before coming to the United States. He said his family was promised protection in the U.S. under the parole program before those protections were revoked by the Trump administration. He said he hopes that his family’s story sends a clear message.
“We as a family will remind them that their dignity is important that their lives have value,” Chavarria said. “Even though the government might tell them otherwise and treat them like they’ve less than humans.”
Under the Biden administration, the parole Program provided protections for people from those counties and allowed them to come to the United States if seeking asylum from persecution and other dire circumstances in their home counties.
“We trusted the United States to respect its own word and to respect its own promises to the immigrants of his country,” Chavarria said.
However, now those protections are being revoked following an executive order from President Donald Trump, leaving more than half a million people in the U.S. forced to leave or be deported.
“To many people this might just be a number, might be one more immigrant. But these are our family members, these are our friends, these are ourselves,” Chavarria said. “We are human beings with aspirations, with dreams, with fears like everybody else.”
CVU administrators said the move to deport these students “contradicts the very values Vermonters work to instill in our young people.”
“The community at CVU has done a remarkable job taking care of these students in their final weeks at our school. Even so, the way in which these students are being impacted by a change in federal policy is deeply troubling,” Bunting said.
Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
link
