Stopping the Deportation Machine: One Immigrant Student’s Arrest and the Kids Who Took on Washington to Get Him Back

High school journalism teacher Christopher debuts with an informative insider’s account of the successful efforts of students at the school where he taught to challenge a fellow student’s deportation. In January 2016, undocumented immigrant Wildin Acosta, a student at Riverside High in Durham, N.C., was picked up by ICE after he skipped an immigration hearing on his lawyer’s advice; he was slated for deportation back to Honduras, which he’d fled to escape murderous street gangs. Four students at the school’s student newspaper, which Christopher oversaw, rallied to investigate Acosta’s case. The quartet’s efforts to shine a light on the danger Acosta would face back in Honduras led to local news stations covering the story and the involvement of local politicians, who backed his asylum claim. Christopher’s account of the student news team alternates with sections profiling Acosta as he tried to preserve his mental and physical health during an unwarranted stint in solitary and sought to keep up with his homework; he was finally released on bond in August 2016. Christopher inserts slightly too much of himself and the travails and joys of teaching into the narrative, leaving readers yearning for a tighter focus on the students. Still, this makes for a valuable look at the role journalism and publicity can play in challenging government overreach. (Sept.)