At a divisive time for U.S. immigration policies, a school board has decided to name a new elementary school after an award-winning journalist who disclosed in 2011 that he had been living in the U.S. illegally.
The Mountain View Whisman School District board voted Thursday to name the as-yet-unopened school after Jose Antonio Vargas, bypassing Steve Jobs and other technology giants with ties to the San Francisco Bay Area's high-tech Silicon Valley.
"We wanted to pick someone who embodied the values of what you can do with an education, as Jose does," school board president Laura Blakely told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The move comes as the Trump administration faces a growing backlash from human-rights adocates over its immigration practices.
Nearly 2,000 minors have been separated from their families at the U.S. border over a six-week period during a crackdown on illegal crossings, the Associated Press found.