美国国家公共电台 NPR For Some Students, Getting An Education Means Crossing The Border

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

The land border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Ysidro, Calif., is the busiest in the world. As Jonathan Levinson reports, among the crowd are students whose families live in Tijuana and who commute¹ each morning to bring their children to school in the United States.

JONATHAN LEVINSON, BYLINE²: Juan and his mom, Maria, wake up at 5:30 every morning to make the trek³ from their home in Tijuana to high school in San Ysidro. They have to get up early because crossing the border can take up to an hour and a half on some mornings.

JUAN: It's been kind of a - it's been a lot. Every day just crossing - it's, like, the time management. It's finishing homework on time. Yeah, it's a lot.

LEVINSON: But Juan's mom says it's worth the sacrifice.

MARIA: (Through interpreter) He has more of a future here in the United States. The school is much better here than in Tijuana. It's a lot of work, a lot for him and for me. We wake up very early, wait in line. But it's worth it.

LEVINSON: They asked not to be identified by their last name because families caught living outside the district can be fined the cost of their education.

Teachers in San Ysidro say as many as 1,000 students cross the border every morning to go to school. I joined them on a recent morning to see what it's like.

It's 5:30 in the morning, and I'm standing⁴ here in Tijuana, on the Mexico side of the border. And there's a steady stream of cars pulling up, dropping off kids who are all making their way through the fence, up the ramp⁵ to cross the border into the United States to go to school. There are kids of all ages - high school students coming in groups of three, four, and five. There are younger kids walking with their parents. One boy just came by riding on his dad's shoulders with his sister walking alongside of him.

On the other side, some students get on the bus while others take off on skateboards and bikes. But many of the younger ones will walk just a few blocks to Willow⁶ Elementary School, where Nancy Alvarado has taught fifth grade since 2000.

NANCY ALVARADO: In many cases, those are the kids who are here every day with their little backpack on and their hair combed and their breakfast eaten. And they get up at the crack of dawn. And any parent that's willing to make that sacrifice obviously wants their children in school.

LEVINSON: Alvarado says there are two primary reasons families move to Tijuana. One is the cost of living in Southern California. The other is when parents of kids who are U.S. citizens find themselves forcibly removed from the United States, many still want their children to have a U.S. education.

ALVARADO: We have kids arrive midyear because somebody got deported⁷, and that's every year. You get some kid that arrives in, you know, April. And it's like, oh, so where were you before this? Ah, Bakersfield. And what brings you to San Ysidro? Ah, my dad was deported. That's every single year.

LEVINSON: All but one of Alvarado's 30 students are Hispanic, and many commute from Mexico.

ALVARADO: Goo morning.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Good morning.

ALVARADO: (Speaking Spanish).

LEVINSON: As class begins, Alvarado tells me she sees that her students are visibly stressed by having to cross the border every day, especially now with heightened rhetoric⁸ about illegal immigration.

ALVARADO: They hear this, the rhetoric of build the wall, and they imagined the Berlin Wall. My kids are very aware of all that.

LEVINSON: Public school budgets are determined⁹ by attendance and funded through property taxes. In order to enroll¹⁰, families must prove residency. No one from the school district responded to efforts seeking comments on whether families of kids traveling daily from Tijuana were skirting the rules. But the executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber¹¹ of Commerce said the community had faith in the system.

JASON WELLS: In the community, we trust in our school district and what they do as far as their residency confirmation¹².

LEVINSON: That's Jason Wells.

WELLS: I wouldn't say that the community sees children coming from Mexico as a tax burden. Like I said, this community is very supportive to people regardless of their immigration status.

LEVINSON: Maria and her son still lived in the district last year when she registered him for school.

MARIA: (Through interpreter) We lived here in San Diego. But here, the rent is very expensive, so I decided¹³ to go to Tijuana.

LEVINSON: But before next year, they will have to find another way to prove residency.

MARIA: (Through interpreter) I'm scared. Next year, they'll ask for a lot of papers. I'll ask for an address from one of my family members. I'll ask for a favor, and maybe he'll stay here with them. It'll be harder for me because we're used to being together. But, well, he has to.

LEVINSON: Nancy Alvarado, the fifth-grade teacher, is quick to point out that most of the families who cross the border would likely be homeless if they stayed in San Ysidro and wouldn't be paying property taxes anyway. Besides, she says...

ALVARADO: Those kids are American citizens. They have a right to live here. That they don't live here now doesn't mean they won't live here someday.

LEVINSON: That being the case, she says it's in the community's and the nation's best interest to see them educated. For NPR News, I'm Jonathan Levinson in San Ysidro.

1 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

6 willow   

n.柳树

参考例句：

• The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
• The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。

7 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

9 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

10 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

11 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

12 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。