Migrant Deaths on Train, Teacher Shortage, Indian Opposition Leader Ousted
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At least two people are dead. More than a dozen migrants are found in a train car just east of Uvalde, Texas. Ten survivors were taken to hospitals, their conditions unknown. We'll bring you the latest details. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Miles Parks. And this is Up First from NPR News.

Nearly half the public schools in this country don't have enough teachers. Urban districts and subjects like special ed are hit particularly hard. And in India. It does not matter to me how much I am attacked, how many times the police is sent to my house. It does not matter. I stand for the truth. That is the way I am.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is thrown out of Parliament. Critics say it's another step by the ruling party to stifle dissent. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. A tornado tore through the Mississippi Delta last night. There are reports of terrible destruction with at least...

13 deaths. NPR is following that story throughout the day, and we'll have more details this morning on Weekend Edition as well as NPR.org. Now we turn to the same Texas city where a school shooting took place last year. Two undocumented immigrants were found dead Friday inside a train car near Uvalde. Texas Public Radio's Joey Palacios was at the scene, joins us now from San Antonio. Joey, thanks so much for being with us. Hi, Scott. What have you learned so far?

So this happened along Highway 90. It's a major transportation corridor between the border city of Del Rio and San Antonio. The incident was reported about 11 miles away from Uvalde, near the small town of Canipa. It started with a 911 call to Uvalde police, and they relayed the information to Border Patrol, which searched the train and found 15 people suffocating in a shipping container. Five survivors were taken to hospitals around the Uvalde area and five to San Antonio.

What's been learned about the people in that shipping container? Police said they're all undocumented immigrants. We reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said they were looking into it as a possible human smuggling incident. Police say Union Pacific Railroad is leading the investigation into what happened on the train.

Uvalde Police and Border Patrol were two of the main law enforcement organizations involved in this response. It's hard not to point out that they were two of the main groups of officers responsible for the botched response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde last May.

This is obviously a different story about a year later, and it's too early to analyze law enforcement's response to this incident. But it's worth noting this area, the Highway 90 corridor, has extremely heavy law enforcement present that's been doing more immigration enforcement in recent years. What does that immigration enforcement look like where you are, Joey?

This Highway 90 corridor is actually the epicenter of Governor Greg Abbott's controversial Operation Lone Star, which uses the Texas Department of Public Safety and the National Guard to arrest migrants on trespassing charges. And anyone who lives along Highway 90 has become accustomed to the term bailouts. That's when a law enforcement officer pursues a vehicle carrying migrants, and the driver crashes the car intentionally, and the occupants jump out and try to escape.

According to the Texas Civil Rights Project, these bailouts have led to more than 30 migrant deaths since the start of Operation Lone Star in 2021. Uvalde's mayor, Don McLaughlin, said law enforcement in the area has dealt with immigration-related pursuits regularly. We deal with this every day down here. Not deaths every day, but we're dealing with immigrants every day, seven days a week. But Joey, this incident does stand out. Two people in that shipping container have died.

You have covered several tragedies that stem from migration through the area. Yeah, it was in June of last year when 53 migrants were found dead inside a tractor trailer in San Antonio. The victims were from Mexico, Central America, and, you know, actually the last time you and I spoke was about this incident. In 2017, 10 migrants were found dead in a tractor trailer in a Walmart parking lot also here in San Antonio.

After this incident, Republicans have called for harder line immigration policies and Democrats have called for an easier legal pathway to citizenship and entry so people don't have to undertake such a dangerous journey. Meanwhile, people from all over the world are making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border in search of a better life in large numbers, and this area will continue to feel the stress of it. Texas Public Radio's Joey Palacios, thanks so much. Thanks, Scott.

Low pay, bitter politics, and pandemic burnout are driving teachers out of the profession. New teachers are getting discouraged too. That's led school districts into an intense competition for the few candidates that are still looking for work. NPR's Corey Turner joins us. Corey, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. Can we call this a national crisis? Well, as with so many things in education, Scott, it really does depend on where you live.

According to what limited federal data we have, just under half of public schools had one or more teacher vacancies in October. Obviously, that's after the school year started. To get a ground level view of this problem, producer Lauren Magaki and I, we went to a job fair for new teachers at Mississippi State University. And I just want to play you a little bit of what we heard from all of the school district recruiters who were there. We have a

We have a lot of opening. We have a shortage of math teachers. Math and some science. Foreign language, special education. High school English. All of the above. Math and science are our hard to fill areas. So we look at what I'm used to teaching. We have math and the upper level science areas. A little bit of everything. That's right. So teacher specialty definitely plays a part here. We heard special education, science and math in very high demand in lots of places.

But honestly, teacher pay is still really important and also very low in many places. After you just for inflation nationwide, teacher pay, Scott, hasn't budged since 1990. The districts that have been hit hardest, though, most recently with these shortages tend to be isolated rural districts or big city districts that serve lots of students of color. Both struggle to compete for teachers with education.

better funded suburban districts. And that's exactly what I saw in Jackson, Mississippi public schools, which is where I went after that job fair. And what did you hear in Jackson?

Well, so according to the district, on average, the schools there lose about one in five teachers every year. And that was true even before the pandemic. I actually got sound of one of these vacancies at a high school in Jackson where the principal could not find a qualified Spanish teacher. So I dropped by the classroom where the students are taking Spanish 2 on their laptops. What just happened? I saw a big red X.

If you get it wrong, it gives you a chance to try again. How do you like this? I think it's all right. I think it would be better if we actually had a teacher. Oh my gosh, that's so sad to hear as a parent. What can be done with teacher shortages?

Well, the good news is there is a lot that can be done. The question is, is it being done? Many places, including Jackson, are offering hiring bonuses now for folks in hard-to-staff subjects. Also, many states now have or are building what are called Grow Your Own Programs.

This is where aspiring teachers or potential teachers inside these communities can get help paying for a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in exchange for agreeing to stay and teach.

And then there are the folks who are already teaching, Scott. Again, better pay is key, but so is better support, especially for teachers in their first few years. And I just want to share as we wrap this up, there's an amazing example of this happening in Alaska right now. It's called the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project.

And their retired veteran teachers actually work full time as mentors, often flying to isolated villages all over the state to help coach and support new teachers. Again, though, the challenge, these programs cost money. And in many places, that money either won't come or it won't keep coming unless lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand the urgency of the problem. NPR's Corey Turner, thanks so much. You're welcome.

First, he was convicted of defamation. Now, he's lost his seat in Parliament. That's Rahul Gandhi, a top opposition leader in India. Critics say the move shows how far the country's governing party is willing to go to stay in power. Joining us now is NPR's India correspondent, Lauren Frayer, at our bureau in Mumbai. Hi, Lauren. Hi there. So why has Rahul Gandhi been kicked out of Parliament?

The legal answer is that he was convicted of criminal defamation for insulting the prime minister and sentenced to two years in prison. That happens to be the minimum sentence that disbars him from holding office. The political answer is that he has been the most prominent figure challenging Modi on the national stage leading up to upcoming elections.

Parliament is dominated by Modi's Bhartia Janata Party, or BJP, and it doesn't want to take any chances, wants to eliminate any electoral threat. So what did Gandhi actually say about Modi that

the current prime minister that prompted these defamation charges? Yeah, so he called the prime minister a thief at an election rally back in 2019. Sounds relatively innocuous compared to things you hear from politicians in this country and other countries. But an official from Modi's party sued. A court in Modi's home state convicted him.

I have to say, in India, charges like this fly daily. Figures from many parties regularly abuse the courts to prosecute political grudges. Almost half of parliament have criminal charges pending.

Gandhi is unlikely to do time. His sentence has been suspended for at least 30 days. He's out on bail. He's appealing. But what is unusual is to have him disqualified basically from politics. Well, elections are coming next year. What does this mean for his political future and the political future of his party going forward?

Yeah, so Gandhi held a news conference moments ago and he sounded defiant. He refused to apologize. He said Prime Minister Modi is scared of him. But unless his conviction is overturned by higher courts, he cannot face Modi in next year's elections.

Rahul Gandhi's father, grandmother, great-grandfather were all prime ministers of India and their party, the Indian National Congress, is the party of Mahatma Gandhi, though the Gandhis are not related, same name, different lineage. But the center-left Congress party is sort of the product of the Indian freedom struggle, a party of inclusion, of minority rights, with a vision of India as diverse and secular. And that vision has totally been eclipsed

by Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalists, who now dominate politics at the national level, have tremendous influence over the courts, over the legislature, over the media. And they've managed to do this legally through democratic means. Modi has upwards of 70% approval ratings, and Rahul Gandhi hasn't eroded that much. So this actually shows how Modi's party is willing to go after even a pretty weak opponent.

What has been the reaction from other officials in India? So Modi's supporters and members of his party say nobody is above the law. They're following the law. One other opposition politician said Modi's party is being vindictive and shameful. And some say democracy is in danger in what is still sometimes called the world's biggest democracy. That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Mumbai. Thank you so much, Lauren. You're welcome. Thank you.

And that's Up First for Saturday, March 25th, 2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Miles Parks. Tomorrow on Up First, hear about the worst friendly fire incident among U.S. Marines in modern history and how it was apparently scrubbed from the official record. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Don Clyde, Nicole Cohen, Tara Neal, Adil El-Shalchi, Melissa Gray, and Matthew Sherman.

Special thanks to Dan Katz of Texas Public Radio. The episode was produced by Fernando Narro, Andrew Craig, Michael Radcliffe, and Danny Hensel. And engineering wizardry from Hannah Glovna. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Sarah Lucy Oliver. And our deputy managing editor is Jim Kane. And please be sure to find us on the radio every Saturday and Sunday morning for a weekend edition from NPR News. You can find your NPR station at stations.npr.org.