Jack Vu and Abby Manuel had been part of a volunteer program teaching weekly computer and Spanish classes to kids in Houston’s East End for more than a year, when one day the kids stopped showing up.
Masked federal immigration officers had been making their presence felt in the Lawndale-Wayside neighborhoods, Vu said, prompting families to shelter inside. “We were reading books, throwing the football with the kids, we knew their names, and they knew our names, and it was the fear that was keeping them away,” he said.
The experience motivated the two Rice University students to create a digital map documenting U.S. Immigration Customs Agency activity, and awareness around their project has been growing since it went live in June.
“People didn’t understand what was happening in their community, they couldn’t find any information, so we wanted to fill that void,” Manuel said.