As the focus on immigrant apprehension of adults, minors, and families has dramatically increased under the 45th administration, the Pew Research Center estimates at least 725,000 students in grades K–12 are undocumented in the U.S.

As communities become more and more polarized along socio-political identities we see more reactionary, alt-right, anti-immigrant ideologies shaping political discourse — which is why today’s conversation with sociologists and researchers Dr. SaunJuhi Verma, Dr. Patricia Maloney, and Dr. Duke W. Austin is so important.

Much like the school-to-prison pipeline (before schools closed for the COVID-19 pandemic), more undocumented students were put in vulnerable positions as some disciplinary protocols increasingly involved police officers, or school resource officers (SROs), when combined with stricter immigration enforcement.

To better understand the history and mechanisms behind the School-to-Deportation Pipeline I spoke with sociologists and researchers Dr. SaunJuhi Verma, Dr. Patricia Maloney, and Dr. Duke W. Austin who have dedicated years of research to the nuances and complexities of immigrant students lives, the obstacles they face, and strategies for the eventual end of the deportation of students. Here’s a little about each of our guests:

Dr. SaunJuhi Verma is a scholar of immigration policy, transnational migration, and race/settler colonialism. Her work focuses upon emerging technologies of migrant surveillance for regulating rights to mobility. Three significant research lines reflect the breadth of her work, (1) settler colonialism as a framework for evaluations of immigration policy, (2) the school to deportation pipeline, and (3) migrant surveillance technologies adopted by nation-states.

These research streams have generated a forthcoming book manuscript Captive Labor, a second book manuscript Schooling Exclusion with New York University Press, a third research project funded by the Fulbright Global Fellowship, and countless other refereed article publications in journals such as ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Political Power and Social Theory, Amerasia Journal, and Urban Education. Through her contributions, Dr. Verma strives to bridge the gap between scholarly production and community activism.

Dr. Patricia Maloney specializes in sociology of education, sociological theory, program assessment, and qualitative methods. Recently, she has been conducting an inquiry into how different types of charter schools perform character education in America. This is in conjunction with a larger research project out of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia examining how multiple different school sectors perform character education.

Dr. Maloney also studies Teach For America and how beginning teachers acculturate to their local school environments. During her time in multiple (Teach For America and non-Teach For America) schools, teachers also began to tell her about how adults cheat on standardized exams. This research is new and forthcoming.

Dr. Duke Austin believes that quality teaching and learning fosters intellectual empowerment and social justice. Through learner-centered pedagogy, experiential education, and educating for a diverse world, he empowers his students to apply critical thinking skills to the world around them and to see the relevance of education in their own lives. In doing so, he prepares his students to become civic leaders who actively contribute to society in intelligent and effective ways.

Dr. Austin is a strong advocate for peace and justice. To that end, his teaching and research focus on race, gender, immigration, environmental justice, community engagement, and social justice pedagogy. When conducting research, he utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods. His published work includes a co-edited volume on ethnographic research, titled Bringing Fieldwork Back In (ANNALS 2012), and he is currently completing a co-edited book on the unintended impact of white supremacy on white Americans.

In addition to serving as an Associate Professor at Cal State, East Bay, Dr. Austin has an appointment as a Senior Fellow with the Urban Ethnography Project at Yale University. Before entering academia, he worked as a Lead Wilderness Instructor for Outward Bound in Florida, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, a Supervisor of the Children's Ski School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the Camp Director at Quarterman Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. He is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served as a Teacher Trainer in Paraguay.

Here’s today’s episode, you can also listen to Picture Theory on Spotify and in the Apple podcasts app.

Thanks for reading, enjoy!