for Chalkbeat:At a Bronx school for immigrants, an undocumented teen fights for an education under Trump by José A. Alvarado Jr.

News

for Chalkbeat:At a Bronx school for immigrants, an undocumented teen fights for an education under Trump

josé a. alvarado jr.

Sep 17, 2025

In the hours after one of his students was apprehended by federal immigration agents, Hedin Bernard was on the phone nearly nonstop. He’d comforted the student’s mother. He’d called advocates and lawyers.

And in the moments in between, the school counselor had agonized over how he would tell his other students at ELLIS Preparatory Academy that Dylan Lopez Contreras, a first-year student from Venezuela, had been detained.

He was particularly worried about telling one student.

Bridget, an 18-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant, was a friend of Dylan’s, close enough that he shared arepas with her at lunch. Bernard knew that Bridget and her mother, Marta, were dreading their own upcoming court date and immigration check-in, and word of Dylan’s arrest would get out soon. He wanted Bridget to hear it from him. In her eight months at ELLIS, Bridget had often retreated to his cramped office and sunk into a plush black bean bag whenever her stress became too much to bear.

Photographed for Chalkbeat, with words by Michael Elsen-Rooney

âTheyâve given her a lot of hopeâ: A NYC school fights to educate an undocumented teen under Trump
For Bridget and Marta, ELLIS Prep often felt like the only public institution with its arms open in a city and country that seemed not to want them.
Chalkbeat.org

José A. Alvarado Jr.

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