At the dawn of Trump’s second presidency, as United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began ramping up efforts to target and deport migrant communities, Texas eighth grader Alexa Jaramillo was scrolling on social media.
Here, she saw something that caught her attention: small red cards being shared in person and online.
The cards are a free downloadable resource from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center providing legal information for people who might be stopped or questioned by ICE.
They outline constitutional rights, in both English and Spanish — something her school community, with an 83% Hispanic population, would benefit from.
Jaramillo asked her principal to print the cards out on red paper to distribute to parents in the pickup line at school. She cut out 500 cards by herself and enlisted other student volunteers to help distribute them.
Jaramillo enlisted other students to help her distribute Red Cards after school. Photo courtesy of Trinity Basin Preparatory/Facebook
Parents nodded wordlessly or took the cards and put them in their wallets, grateful.
Trinity Basin Preparatory, the school district Jaramillo attends, applauded the middle schooler’s efforts.
“Alexa Jaramillo, an 8th grader at TBP’s Bolt campus, is leading the way in educating immigrant families about their rights,” a Facebook post praising the student said.
“At TBP, we are proud of her and all our students who seek to do more, expect more, and be more.”
Jaramillo said she planned to continue the effort, hoping to instill confidence in her community.
“Don’t be afraid,” she told the Fort Worth Report. “Just because you’re not from here doesn’t make you any less than anyone else.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 Helpers Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image courtesy of Trinity Basin Preparatory/Facebook
