Gabriel Rodriguez

Book cover of Laboring in the Shadows: Precarity and Promise in Black Youth Work by Bianca J. Baldridge

Laboring in the Shadows by Bianca J. Baldridge explores the critical role of Black youth workers, especially in the lives of vulnerable youth, and the challenges they face in their unstable, underappreciated position.

https://ow.ly/SoHZ50YgWmg

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.

This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

We still don't know the names of the ICE agents who killed Gonzàlez behind the wheel of his car outside Chicago in September.

They were unmasked in this BWC footage from Franklin Park police.

If you have any information at all about these men—please text us on Signal at unraveled.66

New pub alert! I had the pleasure of writing alongside the great Dana Nickson. Super excited we got to collaborate and write about suburban placemaking! Check out our article here: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/PTNTR...

Contributor: The Trump administration is targeting children of color Instead of policies that reduce crime, we get rhetoric of locking up 'bad children.' It's counterproductive and expensive, and it distracts from real solutions that were working before Trump cut their...

New op-ed in the LA Times by myself & Dave Stovall. We wrote this because are watching in horror the ways this administration is terrorizing Children of Color. Black & Brown children deserve better than this. We all deserve better than this. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

A Tragic Homecoming After nearly two decades in Chicago, Silverio Villegas González returned to Michoacán in a coffin. His death at the hands of federal agents left two families divided by borders, shattered with grief, ...

Thank you to @blockclubchi.bsky.social for republishing @almacampos.bsky.social's moving reporting on the final journey of Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by federal agents last month in Franklin Park.

blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/20/a...

The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.

The 13th largest military in the world is occupying and waging war on the people of Chicago.

“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.

A daughter becomes a lifeline for her parents as immigration enforcement intensifies in Chicago President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign is forcing some immigrants to isolate at home. But relatives, friends and strangers are stepping up to try to keep them connected.

Across Chicago and the suburbs, relatives, friends and even strangers are shopping and caring for isolated immigrants as reports of immigration arrests intensify. Story w/ @medicenambi.bsky.social and @araceligomezaldana.bsky.social
www.wbez.org/immigration/... @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com

New pub alert! During my time in Iowa, it was a pleasure to learn from youth who battled and wrestled with how to bring a more equitable and just school. Check out the article via the link below:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Palestinian teen injured in Gaza tries to walk again in Chicago suburbs But the 16-year-old could be one of the last children from Gaza allowed in for treatment after the United States paused visas for Palestinians.

In today's @chicago.suntimes.com we tell the story of a 16-year-old Palestinian teen who has spent his summer in the Chicago area learning how to walk again. But he's likely one of the last children from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment: chicago.suntimes.com/health/2025/...

Mapping Community Defense and Care in Our Neighborhoods This worksheet can help us prepare for Trump's military interventions at the neighborhood level.

Last night, about 60 Chicago activists and organizers gathered to discuss Trump's threatened military occupation of our city. Our convo centered around a worksheet that some friends and I put together this week—a tool that can help us build and strengthen local networks of support and protection.

New Indiana immigrant detention center could triple ICE beds in Chicago region Indiana officials confirmed 1,200 empty beds at a rural prison are now available for the federal government to house detained immigrants.

Indiana officials confirmed 1,200 empty beds at a rural prison are now available for the federal government to house detained immigrants.
trib.al/CwzBdm0

Who’s behind those texts slamming Mayor Johnson and some progressive alders for their ‘snap curfew’ vote? • The TRiiBE A round of political text messages are circulating in Chicago after the mayor’s veto on a youth curfew ordinance. Experts say these campaigns are only going to increase from here.

This is a really interesting look at how a PAC is targeting residents (many who are probably Latino) in wards led by progressive Latino alders. I've been getting texts in Spanish from this PAC in recent days about the grocery tax. thetriibe.com/2025/06/whos...

American Teachers in Red States Are Walking Away for Good The predictable consequences of the right wing’s war on public schools are being felt as educators leave their communities—and their profession.

“In the last school year, schools opened with an estimated 55,000 teaching vacancies … States like Utah, Nevada, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida were the hardest hit, with Arizona leading at less than 44 teachers per 1,000 students.”

https://trib.al/yB1Ajuc

Grad students or recent grads doing ed policy work should consider applying for this great opportunity!

Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A.

Our Turn | A call to 'strengthen the human connections at the heart of education' An open letter, from an inter-generational mix of 23 Urbana High School students, preservice teachers and supportive faculty.

Two Saturdays ago, a high school teacher and I got 11 high school students together with 9 preservice teachers and had a big conversation about school and teaching and learning. Then, we drafted a collective op-ed. It was published this morning!

www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

I’m excited to share a new publication that was released online today and will be part of the History of Education Quarterly’s forthcoming print issue! #HistEd #EduSky

Dehumanizing language used on America's enslaved is still spoken today The words Donald Trump and his underlings use for immigrants strip away their humanity and reduce them to dangerous caricatures worthy of fear rather than constitutional protection.

New op-ed in the Chicago Sun Times

“When someone accepts bureaucratic terms for human displacement, they become desensitized, seeing figures instead of faces, cases instead of lives being upended.”

chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...

They are arresting people on the streets, terminating their visas, and disappearing them for writing things they disagree with. This is where we are. Two months in. Right now. If you think they won’t begin coming after citizens soon, you are mistaken.

Israeli Settler Mob Attacks “No Other Land” Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Israeli soldiers blocked the ambulance transporting Ballal after the attack and detained him.

A mob of Israeli settlers has attacked Palestinian filmmaker and activist Hamdan Ballal just three weeks after he won an Oscar. Israeli soldiers then blocked the ambulance transporting Ballal after the attack and detained him. His current condition and location is unknown.

Health coverage for Chicago area immigrants jeopardized in Gov. Pritzker’s budget proposal Nearly 33,000 Illinoisans without legal status — including 22,000 in Cook County — could be left without health care if lawmakers approve Gov. JB Pritzker's budget proposal to eliminate a costly progr...

Once held up by Dems as a beacon of progressive governance, the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program has been put on the chopping block. And many who have come to depend on the healthcare coverage aren't sure what they'll do: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/202... w/ @mitchtrout.bsky.social

It seems like when you write a decision giving the President king-like powers, you shouldn't be indignant when he acts like a king.

Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner Abel Orozco Ortega was among 22 people from the Chicago area whose arrests by federal immigration agents violate a federal settlement, according to attorneys with the National Immigrant Justice Center...

“Is that what it means to be a criminal — to wake up early and go to work and look after your family?”
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

EdSurge Voices of Change Writing Fellowship - EdSurge Collections Over the years, EdSurge has explored how school models, instructional practices and the experiences of students and educators are changing. We examine ...

hey teachers working for social justice, check out this rad writing fellowship supported by $5K/year! www.edsurge.com/research/gui...

Not good at all

State schools chief tells schools: Don’t stop teaching certain subjects because of Trump Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders tells schools to continue teaching subjects like Black History and to keep educating students regardless of their immigration status, despite a recent letter from the U.S. Department of Education threatening federal school funding.

Illinois schools chief tells districts to follow state law, not Trump threats
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/21/illinois-schools-chief-says-keep-teaching-black-history-after-trump-letter/

It's 2025—Say No To Historic Racist Goals in U.S. Education | Opinion Schools must be a place where students can question, debate, and think critically about the world around them. But the White House's K-12 executive order pushes the education system in the opposite di...

Here’s the second op-ed!. www.newsweek.com/its-2025say-...

“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”

Hitting Pause on the ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter The Department of Education is overstepping its bounds and infringing on constitutional rights.

Here, I explain how the February 14 "Dear Colleague" letter is a widely expansive distortion of the court’s ruling in SFFA. Institutional responses should remain focused on areas that the Supreme Court addressed and not expand to those clearly outside its purview.

www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...

Rodriguez Pubishes Article on Accountability in Research with Youth of Color

EPOL assistant professor Gabriel Rodriguez recently published his article in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. It is titled "Enacting Thick Solidarity Through Convivencia: Examining Relationships and Accountability in Research with Youth of Color."

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