Thread: San Bernardino County deems petition to ban illegal aliens in Yucaipa school illegal

San Bernardino County deems proposed petition to ban undocumented immigrants in Yucaipa schools illegal


San Bernardino County deems proposed petition to ban undocumented immigrants in Yucaipa schools illegalBy BEAU YARBROUGH | Press-Enterprise

PUBLISHED: April 15, 2017 at 9:44 pm | UPDATED: April 15, 2017 at 9:46 pm


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SAN BERNARDINO >> A proposed ballot initiative that would have banned undocumented immigrant children from attending Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified schools is something that only the California legislature can do, according to San Bernardino County’s elections chief.“The state constitution vets the legislature with sweeping and comprehensive powers in relation to public schools,” an April 11 letter to Joseph Turner from Registrar of Voters Michael J. Scarpello reads in part. “The admission standards and tuition contemplated in the proposed initiative fall within the area of the legislature’s preemption on this subject.”

And that means the proposed ballot initiative “cannot be processed,” Scarpello wrote.

Joseph Turner“This is exactly the sort of corruption I have come to expect from San Bernardino County where they make up and interpret the law to suit their agenda,” Turner wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon. “Their easily refuted lies and legal interpretations illustrate how government has become the enemy of working-class Californians who seek to play by the rules.”

Turner said that when he submitted his proposed ballot initiative on April 3, the registrar’s office said nothing about school district initiatives being limited to taxes and bond issues. He now intends to reach out to conservative legal groups to help him fight the county’s decision in court.

The ballot initiative, if approved by voters, would have prohibited undocumented immigrant children from attending Yucaipa schools and would have charged tuition to the citizen children of undocumented immigrants.

Turner who now lives in Torrance but who previously lived in San Bernardino and Redlands, said he chose Yucaipa for its small size and political conservatism. He would have needed about 3,200 signatures (10 percent of the registered voters in the school district) to get his measure on the ballot. According to the registrar of voters’ office, nearly 60 percent of voters in Yucaipa voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

It is not a district, however, with an unusually high number of immigrant children, according to the limited information available: In the 2015-16 school year, the most recent year for which data is available, 9.4 percent of Yucaipa-Calimesa students were classified as “English Language Learners,” according to the California Department of Education. Neither the district nor the state release statistics on how many students are undocumented immigrants or have parents who are.

That’s about half the rate of English Language Learners in San Bernardino County, which was 18.9 percent in 2015-16, and just more than a third of the state average, which was 22.1 percent the same year.

Had it been approved by voters, Turner’s initiative would immediately have run into legal trouble, as it intentionally conflicts with Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the denial of free public education to students based on their immigration status.

Turner previously said his hope was to inspire similar laws around the country to lead to a challenge to that ruling.

His proposition echoes a 1975 Texas law that allowed school districts to refuse to provide education to children who weren’t legal U.S. residents and allowed the state to withhold funds that would be spent on doing so. In 1977, the Tyler Independent School District began charging annual tuition of $1,000 to educate students without legal documentation. The U.S. District Court for Texas’ Eastern District, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, finally, the U.S. Supreme Court all agreed that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution’s “equal protection” guarantee meant that all U.S. laws must be applied to all people in the same way, including children in the country without legal documentation.

Monday morning, Turner emailed all members of the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified school board, “asking them to declare to the community their position on Plyler v Doe and the education of illegal aliens,” he wrote in an email sent to the media. He has also asked supporters to join him at an upcoming school board meeting to ask the board members in person.

This is not Turner’s first go-round with the ballot: He previously made unsuccessful bids for the San Bernardino school board in 2006 and for San Bernardino City Clerk in 2007. In 2006, Turner proposed a San Bernardino ballot measure to ban city-funded day laborer centers and require all city business to be conducted in English only. He also proposed penalizing landlords for renting to illegal immigrants.

Turner, who describes himself as a “nationalist” rather than a “conservative,” founded the nonprofit Save Our State in 2004. The anti-illegal immigration group was accused of racism and monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Now, he has a new nonprofit, American Children First.

“We believe that American children are having their birthright stolen from them by illegal aliens and open border globalists hell-bent on destroying this great nation with their liberal policies,” a mission statement on the group’s Facebook page reads. “If you believe in American exceptionalism and the preservation of Western Civilization, join us!”

Indivisible Yucaipa Area, the local chapter of the progressive group, cheered the county’s decision.

“We thank every concerned citizen that contacted their local officials to oppose this initiative,” a statement released by the group on Tuesday reads in part. “Torrance resident Joseph Turner chose Yucaipa because he thought we were an easy target for his illegal, unconstitutional, and inhumane initiative. He thought he could sow discord in Yucaipa and get us to turn on innocent children. You let him know that Yucaipa’s children are protected. Every single one of them. We are proud to be your neighbors.”

http://www.pe.com/2017/04/15/san-ber...hools-illegal/

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This group wants to bar children in the U.S. illegally from attending some schools

Illegal aliens can go attend school in THEIR country.

E-verify ALL taxpayer funded programs including school and boot them out.

Stop aiding and abetting illegal aliens.

Do not reward...deport!

No illegal aliens should be able to attend any event or program in the United States, private or public. It's not even legal for US taxpayers or State taxpayers or county or city taxpayers to be funding the educations of people who are banned from our country. The absurdity of this is beyond comprehension.