Mexican mothers afraid they'd be separated from children under new immigration law

Published: Tuesday, October 04, 2011, 5:26 AM

By Rena Havner Philips,

Children walk down one of the halls past a bulletin board at Foley Elementary School on Monday, Oct. 3 2011. (Press-Register/Bill Starling)
FOLEY, Alabama -- The two Mexican mothers were nervous about driving from their oyster-shucking jobs to Foley Elementary School for parent-teacher conferences.

But they did it Monday anyway.

Afraid of being pulled over and detained by police under Alabama’s new, strict immigration law, the two, who acknowledged that they are here illegally, said they still had to come to the school to find out how their children were performing in class.

Even more important, they wanted to talk to the teachers about how safe their children — several of whom are on the Honor Roll — would be at school.

[b]“We are living in fear,â€