Eleven-year-old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza took her own life on Feb. 8, 2025, in Gainesville, Texas, after months of being bullied by schoolmates who harassed her about her family’s immigration status and threatened to report them to ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The young girl attempted suicide on Feb. 3 and was admitted to intensive care in Dallas, where she died five days later. Schoolchildren harassed and tormented her, telling her that “she would be abandoned if her parents were deported.”
Gainesville Intermediate School was aware of the harassment, and Jocelynn met regularly with a school counselor, but the family was not informed of the seriousness of the situation. Incidentally, it is not even known whether the Carranza family is illegally residing in the US or has a residence permit. But the affair is being read as a thermometer of the unreasonable hatred that the MAGA movement has spread among the population.
“I waited a whole week hoping for the miracle that my daughter would be okay, but unfortunately nothing could be done,” said Jocelynn’s mother. “Now my daughter will always live for me and I will always love her.” During her funeral service held Feb. 19 at St. Mary Catholic Church, the same church where Jocelynn had been baptized 11 years earlier, the priest said of her, “She didn’t know how to understand the things happening in the world.” Jocelynn was remembered in the obituary as “a wonderful daughter, sister, niece and friend to all.” Many attended wearing in her honor, pink, white and lavender shirts with her image printed on them.
Currently, the mother of the deceased child is working with investigators and the school to understand what precipitated the situation leading little Jocelynn to such an extreme act and especially why the family was not informed. Meanwhile, deportations continue to intensify: last Tuesday, the White House released a video showing groups of chained migrants being forced to board a plane destined for an unidentified location.
