“Stopping the Deportation Machine: One Immigrant Student’s Arrest and the Kids Who Took on Washington to Get Him Back,” documents the journey of Wildin Acosta from Honduras to North Carolina and the student journalists covering his arrest and detention in 2016. Author Bryan Christopher, a Riverside High School teacher, dedicates the book to “the many students who teach [him] about this world.”

“Wildin lived the experience. He was arrested and detained, and he experienced being in immigration prisons. While he was detained, I was here in Durham watching the community outcry, I was watching the advocacy take place, and I was watching my students lead parts of that effort,” said Christopher. “It was two uniquely different angles of the story. As he started telling me about his experience, we were able to juxtapose it with what I observed here in Durham, as the community fought for his right to return and graduate.”

We had the opportunity to chat with Bryan about the book, how student journalists, some of them undocumented themselves, covered a deeply personal and complex topic and the power of student voices in shaping public understanding. Our conversation has been edited for length.

The Pirate’s Hook is a really unique publication, more than three decades old, independently funded, and student-led. How did you guide the student journalists as they responded to Wildin Acosta’s arrest and detention?

Bryan Christopher: It started with having talented students who wanted to take it on. They were at many events, which then uniquely positioned them to write about it, get student perspectives, and access bilingual classmates who could conduct interviews in Spanish. We were uniquely positioned to access Wilden’s friends and family, because they were also part of the school community and we were able to utilize interviews done in both languages.

It was really traumatic at various points. There were definitely times where kids and adults alike had to step back, take time for themselves, or take a breath. We had a really powerful core group of advocates working for this tirelessly. But there was enough strength in numbers that the work to fight for Wildin’s release and right to graduate continued, even if someone had to step aside. The Durham community embraced it, which allowed momentum to continue even when some of the key advocates couldn’t be there in the moment.

As students began reporting, they spotted discrepancies: why were schools and churches off-limits for ICE but bus stops and apartment parking lots fair game? Who made the decision to target minors? Did they know Wilden fled Honduras because a gang threatened to kill him? What was your approach to helping them find answers?

Bryan Christopher: The first thing I had to do was a lot of homework. I was not well informed when it came to immigration policy and the rights of undocumented kids, so I was trying to educate myself quickly enough to then fact-check their coverage and ensure accuracy. 

The other thing that emerged pretty quickly was there were some overlapping policies between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education. The Supreme Court had ruled years before that undocumented students had a right to a free and accessible public education regardless of their immigration status, but at the same time there were immigration raids happening that were apprehending students on their way to school. 

When kids started asking questions about that, they just got different answers. When an adult asked another adult, often an elected official, the answer was often: “this is a very difficult and complicated topic, there are lots of layers to it.” A young person isn’t afraid to double down and say “Yeah but why? Why?” That was really probing. It really pushed some pretty high ranking people to pause. 

What impact did student journalists have on the process and Wilden’s eventual release and graduation?

Bryan Christopher: They kept it in the public light in a different way than if it was just adults leading it. Certainly, they got a lot of support from a lot of adults. But their voices were resonating in ways that sometimes grown ups’ weren’t. They were poised in front of the cameras and they were asking questions in a mature and professional way. Because it was coming from classmates that didn’t have the agendas we sometimes attach to adults, it commanded a different kind of attention. 

How did you and the students balance the advocacy with covering the story? 

Bryan Christopher: It was a juggling act. As a journalism teacher advising a student-led publication, the story had real value in our community. The work for me always felt academic—helping them do this well: the writing, interviewing, and fact-gathering. The advocacy evolved organically—they were just asking questions and they really zeroed in on “why can’t he graduate?” and “what would it take to get him back?” 

We guided them on separating advocacy from reporting. If someone wanted to advocate for Wildin’s right to graduate regardless of immigration status, they weren’t the ones writing the news articles. We want to be aware of the different lanes. That was something they understood and they were strategic about who was advocating versus who was covering the news events themselves. Those were discussions we started having from a pretty early point. 

You write about how these experiences had a profound impact on yourself and the students. How did you see it shaping them, including after they graduated and started college & careers?

Bryan Christopher: These were remarkable kids. I’m really excited for them now because their adult lives remain centered on community-oriented and service-related. One works as a paralegal at a law firm, does interpretation, another teaches elementary school, another works in an education nonprofit to provide opportunities for low-income students, and one went to grad school for public policy and business. They’re not full-time advocates. But their careers still focus on community and service.

How did these experiences change the way you work with student journalists and how are you applying that in this moment, where there are raids, policies and rhetoric targeting immigrants and those advocating to protect them?

Bryan Christopher: One of the things I learned—and I learned this from the local reporters covering the events because we have some really good ones in and around Durham—we need more informed conversations about what these policies do to schools and communities. While you never want to focus too heavily on one single narrative, when a particular student at my school was arrested and profoundly impacted, it was the on-ramp I needed to more deeply understand what was happening. And I think that has really driven a lot of the work, to do the book and continue to work in student journalism. We want to deepen the understanding of these complex issues, we want to inform other people’s perspectives and we want to continue to give kids a place to really learn by doing.

Student journalism opportunities—kids really take advantage of them, they really value them and they can learn so much from it. While they don’t all go on to become professional journalists, they become better communicators, they become more aware and their worldview widens. I hope the book helps galvanize the value of student journalism and why we need good journalists.

Join Bryan and Wildin for upcoming discussions at Epilogue Books in Chapel Hill October 3 and Letters Bookshop in Durham on Wednesday October 8.

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