News / Human Rights

11-year-old in US takes her own life after being bullied over family’s immigration status

Friday, 21 February 2025 12:40 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 21 February 2025 12:46 AM ]

Jocelyn Rojo Carranza

An 11-year-old girl has taken her own life in Texas after her classmates threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities and have her family deported from the US.

Jocelyn Rojo Carranza was found unresponsive by her mom in their Gainesville, Texas, home on February 3 and passed away five days later on February 8 after spending five days being treated in a Dallas hospital.

She was buried on Wednesday, according to her online obituary.

Carranza’s mother Marbella Carranza told Univision the girl was bullied with deportation threats for weeks by her school peers at Gainesville Intermediate School.

Classmates allegedly harassed the young girl by telling her she would be left alone without her family once they were deported.

“They were going to call immigration so they could take her parents away and she would be left alone,” Carranza told CNN affiliate station KUVN.

Her death comes amid President Donald Trump’s ordering for the “largest deportation operation in American history.”

Agents with ICE and other federal authorities have launched targeted raids on approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide.

For Jocelyn however, the climate of fear became all too grave.

Trump has announced an expansive directive granting federal authorities the ability to deport up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records to a designated detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Trump plans to detain 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay

Trump says he will order the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for 30,000 migrants.

In a memorandum from the White House, Trump instructed the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to initiate the process of detaining “criminal migrants” in order to "halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty."

The administration clarified that the deported migrants would not be placed in the military prison at Guantanamo, which has gained notoriety for holding foreign terrorism suspects and has faced intense scrutiny from human rights organizations.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir