Miami-Dade Superintendent of Schools Alberto Carvalho will be honored at Thursday’s Hispanic Heritage Awards ceremony in Washington, the school district announced.
Carvalho will receive the Education Award “for his academic achievements in one of the largest Hispanic-serving districts in the country as well as for his stance on Dreamers, undocumented students who live in this country,” the district said in a news release Wednesday.
In 2012 the superintendent was a high-profile supporter of Daniela Pelaez, a then-North Miami Senior High School student who was brought illegally to the U.S. by her parents when she was 4 years old. She and her sister were ordered deported but were then granted a two-year reprieve. Carvalho said that Pelaez would be deported over his dead body.
"You are here today graduating. America has your back. The Class of 2012 has your back,” Carvalho said emphatically at her graduation, where she delivered the commencement speech.
Carvalho is scheduled to travel to Washington on Wednesday.
Deferred Action for Dreamers Begins
Hispanic Heritage Awards recipients will be recognized at the White House Thursday at noon, with the awards ceremony to be held at 8 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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The awards, which were established by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 to mark the creation of Hispanic Heritage Month, are the signature event of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
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