Donald Trump

Teacher Accused of Telling Students Their Parents Will Be Deported

An audio recording of the exchange captured by a student's cell phone is under review by the Los Angeles Unified School District

A Los Angeles substitute teacher is accused of telling sixth-graders their parents would be deported in the wake of Tuesday's presidential election.

An audio recording of the exchange captured at Bret Harte Middle School in South Los Angeles by a student's cell phone is under review by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The conversation occurred a day after billionaire businessman Donald Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the race for president.

A mother of one of the students told NBC4 Southern California that she expected some backlash after Trump made a hard-line stance on deportation part of his campaign from the time he announced his candidacy last year.

"I would think the kids would do it, but I never thought a teacher would do it," said Jennifer Reynaga.

The Reynaga family shared the audio with NBC4 and sister station Telemundo 52. On the recording, an individual can be heard telling Reynaga's 11-year-old daughter, "If you were born here, then your parents got to go. Then they will leave you behind, and you will be in foster care."

Reynaga said her daughter asked the physical education substitute teacher how the president-elect knows where her family lives.

"I have your phone numbers, your address, your mama's address, your daddy's address. It's all in the system, sweetie," the person says in the recording.

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LAUSD officials said they declined to comment on pending personnel matters. Reynaga and her husband said they met with school officials and were told the substitute teacher has been fired.

Immigration was a key component of Trump's campaign, and his win Tuesday led Los Angeles immigration rights advocates to offer reassurances Thursday to the city's undocumented immigrant community.

"You have scared children," said Steve Zimmer, board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District. "One of most important things you can do is make sure that children who have qualified for DACA know that they are safe and their status is secure."

DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, went into effect in 2012. It allows certain people who came to the United States as children to request permits to stay in the United States that are renewable every two years, provided they meet guidelines.

Trump has vowed to deport people convicted of serious crimes who are in the United States illegally. In a September speech, then candidate Trump promised a more hard-line approach to a crowd of Arizona supporters.

"There will be no amnesty," Trump said. "Our message to the world will be this: You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country."

Los Angeles County has an undocumented immigrant population estimated as high as 800,000, about 12 percent of the county's 10 million residents, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

The agency estimates that nearly 40 percent of adult undocumented immigrants live with children who were born in the United States. An estimated 13 percent of K-12 students in California have a parent who is an undocumented immigrant, according to PPIC.

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