[lg policy] Hispanics leave school in face of Alabama's tough immigration law

[Harold Schiffman]

Hispanics leave school in face of Alabama's tough immigration law

Alabama's new immigration law requires public schools to document the
legal status of children upon enrollment. As a result, many immigrant
families are withdrawing their children from school.

By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / October 1, 2011

Hispanic students did not show up for school in noticeable numbers
Thursday and Friday in Alabama following a federal judge’s ruling
Wednesday that upheld several provisions of a harsh state law
restricting illegal immigration in the state. The absence of Hispanic
students has many education leaders worried that immigrant families
are withdrawing their children from school to prevent state
authorities from looking into their legal status.

The Pew Hispanic Center says the number of illegal immigrants in
Alabama rose 380 percent between 2000-2010, from 25,000 to 120,000,
and that illegals represent 2.5 percent of the total state population
today.

Could you pass a US Citizenship test? Take our quiz

According to the Associated Press, students in several districts with
large immigrant enrollments experienced a drop in attendance by
Hispanic students. While numbers are not yet available statewide, the
shift was noticeable enough for Casey Wardynski, the public school
superintendent of Huntsville, to make an appearance on local
Spanish-language television Thursday to explain the new state law and
assure parents they “do not have anything to fear.”

The video was uploaded to YouTube and is linked on the district’s
website. It is scheduled to run several times each day until Oct. 9.

The anxiety over the enrollment issue is resulting from a ruling by US
District Judge Sharon Blackburn who ruled Wednesday that a bill signed
into law has several components that pass federal scrutiny, including
a provision that requires the state’s public schools to require
documentation that shows the legal status of children upon enrollment.

Public school officials are trying to dissuade a mass exodus by
telling parents that they will track the legal status of their
children only to gather statistical information and that they are not
allowed, for privacy reasons, to identify students who may be living
in the country illegally.

Paul Horowitz, a constitutional law expert at the University of
Alabama’s law school in Tuscaloosa, says the data collection nature of
the law “is fairly clever” in circumventing a federal law that
prohibits discrimination in public school enrollment and that the
state may be using the new provision “as a way to set up a longer-term
factual basis for challenging the requirement that children of illegal
immigrants be publically schooled.”

According to the new law, each school district in Alabama will now be
required to turn in its data to the state’s education department,
which will then provide the legislature an annual report showing
enrollment numbers and an analysis on how much is spent each year
teaching illegal immigrants.

The number of students who failed to show up in school varied, from
200 in Huntsville to 107 in Albertville. Absent students were
particularly high in counties with high Hispanic populations.

School administrators said it was their duty to educate their student
population, no matter their legal status.

“We are ready to educate these kids. We are held accountable for
them,” Mr. Wardynski told the Huntsville Times.

The Obama administration announced Friday it will appeal Judge
Blackburn’s ruling to prevent the immigration law from going forward.
It filed a motion to stay the order. Blackburn gave the state until
Monday to file a response to the request.

Her motion upheld a controversial provision that allows law
enforcement officials to detail people suspected of being in the US
illegally if they fail to produce proper documentation as well as two
others: one that makes it a misdemeanor for any illegal immigrant to
have fake citizenship documents and another that requires proof of
citizenship when applying for a driver’s license or motor vehicle
license plate.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1001/Hispanics-leave-school-in-face-of-Alabama-s-tough-immigration-law

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