Monday, 27 July 2026, 22:50
The deportation of a 9-year-old third grader from her East Bay classroom has left her classmates grappling with fear and loss—a stark illustration of the human toll of immigration enforcement in California schools.
In March 2025, Diana Ortega, a third-grade teacher in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, scrolled through social media during lunch and saw a video of ICE agents forcibly detaining a mother at San Francisco International Airport. A young girl with colorful rubber bands in her hair watched, crying. Ortega recognized the child as one of her students, Wendy Godinez-Lopez. She watched the video a second time, pausing and zooming in to confirm her suspicion. “I was in disbelief,” Ortega said. “I didn’t want to believe that could be what I was seeing.”
Wendy and her mother, Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, were walking to their gate when TSA alerted ICE. They were held overnight at SFO, then flown to Texas and deported to Guatemala. According to DHS, the family was first detained near the Arizona border in 2018 when Wendy was not yet 2 years old, then released with an order to appear in court. They missed some hearings and were ordered deported in 2019.
Back at Downer Elementary in San Pablo, students learned what happened. Almost every hand went up when Ortega asked who had heard about Wendy. In the days that followed, children made cards, left flowers and candy on her desk. Some told teachers they were afraid to leave home; others wanted to organize a rally to bring her back. “She didn’t let the language become an issue for her,” Ortega said of Wendy, who was learning Spanish and English while speaking Mam at home. “She did her best.”
The school eventually held an assembly and a protest to honor Wendy and demand change.
According to an EdSource analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA, more than 650 children have been detained by ICE in California since the Trump administration’s crackdown began in early 2025. More than 400 have been deported. Michelle Brané, former DHS Family Reunification Task Force leader, noted that previous administrations often scheduled deportations after the school year to avoid disrupting education. “We’re seeing that even in cases where removal may be the legal right procedural step, the process is particularly cruel and harsh,” she said.
San Pablo is a small, diverse city in Contra Costa County, part of the East Bay region near San Francisco. The West Contra Costa Unified School District serves many immigrant families from Central America, Mexico, and Asia. Wendy’s story resonates deeply here, where fear of ICE raids has become part of daily life for students.
Under previous administrations, families with final removal orders sometimes received advance notice, allowing them to sell property, close accounts, or wait until summer break. The current approach, according to critics, prioritizes speed over compassion, uprooting children from their classrooms with no warning.
Wendy’s deportation has left a hole in her classroom and heightened anxiety among peers. As her teacher said, “Wendy isn’t here”—but the impact of her absence will be felt for years in San Pablo and beyond.
