Anti-Immigrant Hate Is What Killed 11-Year-Old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza

Born in Gainesville, Texas, Jocelynn Rojo Carranza was a regular 11-year-old kid by all accounts. According to her online obituary, she loved to dance and sing, and she played the French horn. She enjoyed swimming, doing cartwheels, having movie nights, and getting her nails done with her grandmother. There were virtually no differences between Jocelynn and her peers, except that her family was originally from another country. For months, Jocelynn was bullied for her parents’ migration status, with her classmates threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on her so that her relatives would be deported. After months of torment, Jocelynn attempted to take her life on February 3. She died five days later at a Dallas hospital. 

Like any child, Jocelynn deserved protection so she could live a safe and happy life, one where she would only be preoccupied with the games she liked to play, the activities she enjoyed, and spending time with her family. But with President Donald Trump back in office, using his global stage to call immigrants violent criminals and sign executive orders to deport them en masse, it isn’t surprising that children are now being bullied for having immigrant roots. 

It’s only been a month since the Trump administration took over the White House, but his anti-immigrant policy changes have been rapidly changing the landscape for immigrants across the country. Trump has increased deportation raids, added more personnel at the Mexico-U.S. border, suspended asylum-seeking at the southern border, and expanded the powers of ICE. While anti-immigrant hatred has always existed in this country, Trump’s election and subsequent administration has emboldened this sentiment across the U.S. People who hate immigrants are being validated by every anti-immigrant policy Trump signs off on. 

It’s heartbreaking, unjust, and unconscionable that Jocelynn was driven to suicide by her bullies, but — amid such xenophobia across the U.S. — it’s also not surprising that being a child of immigrants has made children targets for intense harassment and bullying in school. 

While xenophobic violence starts at the highest echelons of the federal government, the Gainesville Independent School District is also complicit. Jocelynn reported the bullying she was enduring to school staff but, according to her mother, Marbella Carranza, nothing was done. Carranza says she had no knowledge of the harassment her daughter was experiencing. If so, the Gainesville Independent School District both minimized Jocelynn’s concerns and neglected to notify Carranza of the situation. Now, Carranza is left to try to understand what happened. 

"I want justice for my child. I want this not to go unhandled. If there are more students out there, more kids out there that are going through it as well, pay attention," Carranza told CBS affiliate KTVT-TV through a translator. "The school needs to pay attention, pay attention to the students to report what's going on.”

This tragic death is only the beginning of the consequences of having a full-blown bully at the helm of the U.S. Trump’s policies and rhetoric are emboldening discriminatory local policies as well as individuals who believe that immigrants — or any other marginalized person — deserve to live in terror of family separation and that there are no consequences bad enough for undocumented immigrants. Trump is invested in annihilating immigrants from the U.S., either by forced deportation, deprivation of resources, or straight-up bullying, in the case of Jocelynn. Even more, his political party’s assault on education has made it so that children are being targeted, too.

For years, Republicans have been attacking the rights of young people. From book bans and assaults on critical race theory to defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across educational organizations, Republicans have been invested in eroding children’s knowledge and resources — particularly for children who are racialized, queer, and/or have immigrant roots. Without these culturally affirming educational programs and literature, young people aren’t taught how to deal with differences and marginalized youth don’t feel seen in their differences. Unfortunately, if DEI education and immigrant communities continue to be targeted, Jocelynn may not be the last child to suffer.

Take the Trump administration’s attack on trans children by defunding gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, which includes the banning of hormone blockers. It’s well-known and understood in the medical field that gender-affirming care mitigates mental health issues in trans children and teens and lessens the risk of suicide. By banning gender-affirming care, Trump is potentially harming trans youth. The same is true about the immigrant population. Dealing with the stress and instability of being an immigrant already increases the likelihood of suicide among the Latine population, and by encouraging the population who supports him to shun, harass, and bully immigrants in their communities, Trump’s administration is infusing the “undesirables,” as he has made clear they are, with the sentiment that they shouldn’t be here. At such a young age, Jocelynn was experiencing the unbearable pain of being considered an “undesirable” by her peers. 

In the current political climate, where the White House and Trump’s voter base celebrate seeing people in chains inside deportation airplanes and detained at detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, how could she feel otherwise? 

It’s clear for anybody to see: Anti-immigrant hate — espoused by all levels of government and everyday Americans — are killing our children. The president’s hateful rhetoric and policies are eroding the rights of marginalized young people, weakening their sense of belonging and confidence, and falsely convincing them that they are better off displaced or dead than facing a society that does not want them.