Becky Dernbach

Minneapolis, Oakland

Reporting on education in Minnesota's immigrant communities @SahanJournal. Rhymes with "Sherlock." She/her. [email protected]

Articles

Feds use rare law to hold UMN student, despite immigration judge ordering his release

3 days ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

A University of Minnesota business student who has been in ICE custody since March — despite an immigration court judge ruling he cannot be deported — brought his case to a federal judge Monday. Doğukan Günaydın is one of at least three Minnesota international students in recent months who remained in ICE custody after an immigration judge ordered their release, because DHS invoked a little-used stay to override the immigration judge’s decision.
As Mpls. school district looks for cuts, homeless families feel impact

4 days ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach |Cynthia Tu

Joletta Edwards knows firsthand that school staff don’t always know what homeless students need. She recalls the moment when a staffer came into her son’s classroom, introduced herself as the caseworker in charge of the homeless and highly mobile program, and asked for her son by name — in front of all his classmates. “The next call I got was them trying to get him to come out of the bathroom because he was in there crying, because the lady set his business out like that,” Edwards said.
‘I never left this block’: How Minneapolis teacher Marcia Howard became a steward of George Floyd Square

4 days ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

It’s 8 a.m. As usual, Marcia Howard is at George Floyd Square for the morning meeting. A group of eight neighbors has gathered at the People’s Way, a one-time Speedway gas station where they sip coffee on benches around empty gas pumps, as Howard delivers updates. Labor unions are planning rallies for May Day; a neighbor needs help moving bins out of her house; and the group will be repainting the long list of names of people around the country who were killed by police.
Trump administration's policy changes for international students

1 week ago | spokesman-recorder.com | Becky Dernbach

The Trump administration’s policy on international students is changing so quickly, its own lawyers are having trouble keeping up. News reports on April 25 indicated that the administration would change course on the mass cancellations of legal status for international students. But in a hearing Monday in St. Paul, a Trump administration lawyer told a federal judge that while he understood there was a new policy, he did not know what that new policy was.
Abrupt Trump shift on international students confuses lawyers

2 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

The Trump administration’s policy on international students is changing so quickly, its own lawyers are having trouble keeping up. News reports Friday indicated that the administration would change course on the mass cancellations of legal status for international students. But in a hearing Monday in St. Paul, a Trump administration lawyer told a federal judge that while he understood there was a new policy, he did not know what that new policy was.
Minneapolis Escuelas Oficina de Logros Latinos sufre recorte presupuestario

2 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

Apenas dos años después de que las Escuelas Públicas de Minneapolis (MPS, por sus siglas en inglés) presentaran su Oficina de Logros Latinos, esta enfrenta importantes recortes presupuestarios. La oficina ha desempeñado un papel fundamental en la bienvenida a los nuevos estudiantes inmigrantes del distrito y ha brindado apoyo en todo, desde la recuperación de créditos académicos hasta apoyo tras la deportación de padres.
SCOTUS ruling halts teacher training grants to UMN, St. Thomas

2 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

Teacher training grants at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas have been terminated again, following an April 4 order from the U.S. Supreme Court. The universities were notified in February that their teacher training grants from the federal government had been terminated, as part of a mass grant cancellation from the U.S. Department of Education. In March, a district judge in Maryland ordered the Department of Education to reinstate the grants.
Minneapolis Schools’ Office of Latine Achievement faces steep cuts

3 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

Just two years after Minneapolis Public Schools unveiled its Office of Latine Achievement, the office is facing major budget cuts. The office has played a large role in welcoming the district’s new immigrant students, and provided support with everything from academic credit recovery to support following a parent’s deportation.
Judge blocks ICE from yanking UMN geography student’s status

4 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

A federal judge Thursday ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to reinstate the legal status of a University of Minnesota graduate student from China and told ICE to stop any action to impose immigration consequences on him. The temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief judge for the district of Minnesota, marks the second injunction against the federal government in three days for terminating the legal status of Minnesota’s international students.
Judge orders ICE to reinstate Metro State student’s legal status

4 weeks ago | sahanjournal.com | Becky Dernbach

A federal judge in St. Paul ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday to reinstate the legal status of a Metropolitan State University student from Thailand. The order from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan in the case of Rattanand Ratsantiboon marks the first intervention by a federal judge into ICE’s termination of the legal status of Minnesota’s international students.