Thread: DeVos: Schools should decide whether to report undocumented kids

By MICHAEL STRATFORD 05/22/2018 03:49 PM EDT Updated 05/22/2018 06:49 PM EDT

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday that it’s up to individual schools to decide whether to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they suspect their students are undocumented.

“That’s a school decision. It’s a local community decision,” DeVos said during testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, adding that “we have laws and we also are compassionate.” Her comments came in her first-ever appearance before the education panel, lasting close to three and a half hours.


Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) asked DeVos whether school principals and teachers had a responsibility to report undocumented students or their families to federal immigration authorities.

“These issues are state and local issues to be addressed and dealt with,” DeVos said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has gone after so-called sanctuary state laws, accusing some states and local officials of obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that its policy generally discourages immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations” like schools, but ICE agents are permitted to enter schools under some circumstances.

DeVos acknowledged during her testimony that the Supreme Court has ruled that the government must provide funding to educate undocumented students in elementary and secondary schools. “There are undocumented children in K-12 education today that we support and give education to on a daily basis,” she said.

Civil rights groups on Tuesday blasted DeVos’ comments, which they said run counter to the Supreme Court‘s 1982 ruling in Plyler v. Doe that guaranteed the rights of students to receive a public education regardless of their immigration status.

“Let’s be clear: Any school that reports a child to ICE would violate the Constitution,” Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has made clear that every child in America has a right to a basic education, regardless of immigration status. Secretary DeVos is once again wrong.”

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that DeVos' comments “could very well have a chilling effect on families seeking to attend and enroll in our public schools, and invite mischief from schools across the country.”

“The suggestion that individual schools should have discretion to determine if and when to report undocumented students flies in the face of well-settled and long-standing Supreme Court precedent which makes clear that no student should be denied the right to a public education based on their immigration status,” Clarke said.

DeVos was also asked at Tuesday's hearing about reports of immigration authorities arresting parents at schools.

“I would just say we are both a nation of laws and we are a compassionate people,” she said. “And I think it’s important that we follow the laws of the land, and if it’s important that laws be changed I encourage this body to do so.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...gration-603277

“The suggestion that individual schools should have discretion to determine if and when to report undocumented students flies in the face of well-settled and long-standing Supreme Court precedent which makes clear that no student should be denied the right to a public education based on their immigration status,” Clarke said.

No, the US Supreme Court Ruling said states had to pay for public education regardless of status if illegal aliens show up for school. This ruling has nothing whatsoever to do with enforcing immigration laws, reporting illegal aliens or removing them and their parents from the country. School is not a safe zone from US immigration law and Plyler vs Doe didn't make it one.

REPORT THESE ILLEGAL ALIENS TO ICE!! ABSOLUTELY!! It should be automatic procedure for every public school in the country.

E-verify our schools! They are a business and they receive State and Federal Tax Dollars.

The government is contradicting itself by NOT obeying it's own Federal Immigration Laws!

You cannot pick and choose who to give a "free" pass to break our laws!

Schools are harboring, aiding and abetting ILLEGAL ALIENS in our school. They must NOT be enrolled in our taxpayer funded schools.


They have NO student visa and NO right to be here.

Why do we have student visa's if people can just pour across our border and enroll themselves in OUR schools. That is absurd!


OUR LAWS APPLY TO PEOPLE OF ALL AGES INCLUDING MINORS!!! THEY ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW.

THEIR PARENTS ARE HERE ILLEGALLY, NOW GO GET TO THE ILLEGAL PARENTS AND DEPORT THEM WITH THEIR MINOR CHILDREN!

Now those are uses of E-Verify by the government that I could get excited about and no law is needed for using it that way.

Most illegals have been in the country a decade or more, and have dug deep roots with their children being born here.
It is imperative that birthright citizenship end, no matter what it takes.

Originally Posted by Beezer

They must NOT be enrolled in our taxpayer funded schools.


They have NO student visa and NO right to be here.

If we are obligated to educate them while they are in this country, they should be in a separate, "deportation school" waiting deportation, with their parents!

Originally Posted by jtdc

If we are obligated to educate them while they are in this country, they should be in a separate, "deportation school" waiting deportation, with their parents!

1) Put them on the "deportation" bus headed home

2) Pop in their "educational" DVD on the TV screen educating them that they are criminal trespassing illegal aliens and are being denied entry

3) Unload them on their soil

4) Class dismissed!!!

DeVos Infuriates Left: ‘School Decision’ to Report Illegal Students to ICE

Publish an I.C.E. phone number where teachers can report students in their classes if the schools won't report them.

Originally Posted by Beezer

E-verify our schools! They are a business and they receive State and Federal Tax Dollars. . .

Sadly the E-verify rules (laws ?) seems to say that the only legal use for E-verify is for an EMPLOYER to verify the WORK ELIGIBILITY of new EMPLOYEES.
So schools could, and do, use E-verify to verify the work eligibility of their EMPLOYEES, but not their students,unless federal laws and state laws are changed.

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/...loyer_comp.pdf