DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The superintendent of Iowa's largest school district and his wife are opening their home to a 17-year-old Guatemalan immigrant after her parents were forced to leave the U.S. because they weren't in the country legally.
The Des Moines Register reports that Jennifer Galdames applied for legal residency before her stepfather and mother were forced to return to Guatemala in October. They took her 8-year-old sister with them.
Jennifer is a year and a half from graduating and didn't want to move to New Jersey to live with a relative she had never met, so Des Moines Schools Superintendent Tom Ahart and Jami Bassman Ahart offered to take her in and serve as her temporary legal guardians so she can get her high school degree in Iowa.