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

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

Jeff Landa Contact Reporter


While President Trump awaits the authorization and funds to construct his promised 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border wall, an organization has proposed a local initiative that would keep immigrants who are in the country illegally out of some Inland Empire schools.

Voters in the Yucaipa-Mesa Joint Unified School District — a district split by San Bernardino and Riverside counties — may soon be able to decide if undocumented immigrants should be prohibited from attending K-12 public schools, and whether American-born children of immigrants here illegally should be charged "nonresident" tuition.
Joseph Turner, a former San Bernardino resident now living in Torrance, filed a notice of intent this week with the San Bernardino County registrar of voters to circulate a petition for the proposed ballot measure.

"We can no longer subjugate the education and future of our children," Turner wrote in the filing on behalf of his nonprofit group, American Children First. "We will no longer take care of those who have broken our laws and seek to prosper at the expense of our children."

Turner founded American Children First last month. The group advocates heavily for "anti-illegal immigration" reform among other issues, including free trade and education.

Turner has long pushed for reform of immigration policies toward those here illegally, most recently founding a similar immigration nonprofit in 2004, Save Our State, and authoring the "City of San Bernardino Illegal Immigration Relief Act" in 2006.

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Trump's crackdown focuses on people in the U.S. illegally – but not on the businesses that hire them

That measure would have barred landlords from renting to immigrants in the country illegally and prohibited business owners from receiving permits if they employed them. A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge determined Turner had not collected enough signatures to qualify the measure for the city ballot.

Now, Turner said he’s been "reinvigorated" by Trump and plans to bring his initiatives to a national level by first targeting a small school district.

"Trump did very well [in the Inland Empire] and I'm hoping the audience will be very receptive” to his proposal, Turner said.

The school district serves nearly 10,000 students in the cities of Yucaipa and Calimesa, and has more than 32,000 registered voters. Turner would need about 3,200 signatures for his initiative to qualify for the ballot.

In the 2016 presidential election, 42% of San Bernardino County voters selected Trump, while 44% of Riverside County voters did.

Turner’s latest proposed initiative shares components of California Proposition 187, which left those here in the country illegally ineligible for public benefits. Although voters approved it in 1994, legal challenges after its passing led to a federal district court declaring the initiative unconstitutional.

Niels Frenzen, an expert in immigration and refugee law at USC, said the implications of a 1982 Supreme Court Decision, Plyler v. Doe, played a major part in Proposition 187’s fate and would also weigh heavy on Turner’s proposed measure should voters pass it. Plyler v. Doe struck down a Texas statute that restricted free K-12 education to citizens, as well as an attempt to impose an annual fee on students in the country illegally.

"It's not surprising, of course, that there are individuals who feel this way, but given this well established legal principle [of Plyler v. Doe] that's of constitutional significance, it would really be irresponsible for a politician, conservative or not, to call for noncompliance," Frenzen said.

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You can't even walk anywhere without fearing you may get caught': Immigrants in U.S. illegally prepare for possible deportation

On both his organization’s website and in the letter to the registrar, Turner takes umbrage with the past decision, claiming that it undermines the quality of education for the children of American taxpayers.

"I think we have a lot of fake Americans in Sacramento that say they are for educating all children but what that really means is they're for compromising the education that American citizens receive so we can pay for illegal aliens," Turner said.

Cali Binks, superintendent of the Yucaipa-Mesa district, said Turner has not reached out to her or members of the school board.

She said the district does not plan to change how it treats students in the country illegally while the proposed resolution makes its way through the process, and she encourages all students to continue attending classes.

“We have a very tight-knit community and we care for everybody,” Binks said.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...405-story.html

Ban on undocumented immigrants in schools? This activist is pushing to pass new law at Yucaipa-Calimesa schools

http://image.sbsun.com/storyimage/LG...h=400&maxw=667Joseph Turner

By Joe Nelson, The Sun
POSTED: 04/04/17, 6:52 PM PDT | UPDATED: 13 HRS AGO 5 COMMENTS


An anti-illegal immigration activist is pushing to get a law passed that would prohibit undocumented immigrants from attending public schools in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District.

Joseph Turner, a 39-year-old L.A.-area resident who formerly resided in San Bernardino and Redlands, hopes his proposed ballot measure, if passed, will inspire similar laws nationwide and spur efforts to challenge a 35-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the denial of free public education to students based on their immigration status.

“I’m trying to basically elevate the discussion into the national consciousness,” Turner, who prefers being called a “nationalist” rather than a “conservative,” said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Turner, a father of two who recently founded the nonprofit American Children First, is also proposing that students who are legal citizens but whose parents are undocumented immigrants pay tuition for their children to attend school.

Tuition would be calculated by dividing the school district’s budget by the number of enrolled students in the district.
Approximately 10 percent of students enrolled in the school district are English language learners, according to the California Department of Education, which does not provide statistics on undocumented students.

Turner filed his petition on April 3 with the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, which will provide a ballot title and summary of the measure.

“I feel very confident this will qualify for the ballot,” said Turner.

He said he singled out Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified because it is in a conservative region with a high number of Donald Trump supporters and a low signature requirement to get his measure on the ballot — roughly 3,200 signatures in a region of about 32,000 registered voters encompassing Yucaipa and Calimesa.

According to the San Bernardino County Elections Office, nearly 60 percent of Yucaipa’s more than 22,000 registered voters who cast ballots during last November’s Presidential election voted for Trump.

Jack Pitney, professor of governmental studies at Claremont McKenna College, said in a telephone interview Tuesday he could not see Turner’s vision come to fruition.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen. Here in California, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of sentiment for excluding undocumented immigrants from public services,” Pitney said.

He said it has been more than 22 years since California voters approved Proposition 187, which would have prohibited undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits had the measure not been challenged in court and blocked by a permanent injunction at the federal level.

And it has been 35 years since Plyler vs. Doe, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that allowed all students regardless of their immigration status to receive a free public education.
“California’s a different state, not to mention that it’s highly unlikely that the courts would want to revisit Plyler vs. Doe,” Pitney said. “This kind of strategy might have gotten more traction 20 or 30 years ago, but in the California of 2017, it has limited appeal.”

Vacationing in Las Vegas for Spring Break, school district Superintendent Cali Binks said she was surprised by the news during a telephone interview Tuesday.

“It was a surprise to our district, a surprise to me. I don’t know anybody who has had any contact with (Turner) from our district,” Binks said. “The district has not participated in any of his activities. We have not been involved at all with him at this point.”

She said the school district will continue complying with state and federal laws in its day-to-day business.

In a statement Tuesday, Sharon Bannister, clerk of Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified’s Board of Education, said, “Our mission is to provide an education for all members of our community from preschool programs, our elementary, middle and high school programs to our growing adult school program. Yucaipa Calimesa JUSD welcomes everyone to be a lifelong learner.”

Sylvia Torres-Guillen, statewide director of education equity for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said federal courts have consistently struck down state and local policies barring undocumented children from attending public schools.

“This certainly does not seem like it would be constitutional,” she said,

“Hopefully, the effect this will have is it will empower others in standing up against this kind of bias and discrimination and hatred, and certainly I would hope that school districts recognize their affirmative obligation to protect students and make sure they’re in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning.”

In his petition, Turner said California “spends billions of dollars educating illegal aliens and the children of illegal aliens,” among other things. Furthermore, California’s schools are “lagging the nation in terms of per pupil spending and student performance,” according to the petition.

“My philosophy is you can’t make America first if you make American children second,” said Turner, who ran for the San Bernardino school board in 2006 and for San Bernardino City Clerk in 2007. He also served as former county Supervisor Neil Derry’s communications director and special projects coordinator.

He has a name for people who believe “all children” have a fundamental right to a free public education: fake Americans.
“They are people who will say they want what’s best for their children, but think all children should get an education,” said Turner. “My question to them is, ‘Why would you allow illegal aliens to steal the resources from their (children’s) own education? You can’t basically say your children are the most important people in the world, then sit by and allow illegal immigrants to steal those resources from your children.”

http://www.sbsun.com/social-affairs/...limesa-schools

CALIFORNIA ACTIVIST'S PROPOSAL DENIES UNDOCUMENTED KIDS ACCESS TO FREE EDUCATION
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In California, public education is a right afforded to all children from kindergarten through 12th grade, but an anti-immigration activist is looking to strip undocumented children's access to public schools. (KABC)


By Leticia Juarez
Monday, April 03, 2017 07:22PM

TORRANCE, Calif. (KABC) --
In California, public education is a right afforded to all children from kindergarten through 12th grade, but an anti-immigration activist is looking to strip undocumented children's access to public schools.

"This initiative would prohibit illegal aliens from attending public schools in the Yucaipa-Calimesa school district," said Joseph Turner of American Children First.

"It would also prohibit children of illegal aliens from attending for free they would have to pay a non-resident tuition fee."

Turner filed a ballot initiative which requires 3,200 signatures to have it placed on an election ballot.

The community of Yucaipa is located 87 miles east of Turner's Torrance office, but he believes his initiative will appeal to voters.

"The community is conservative community. We have 10% of the students in the school district that are English learners," Turner said.

Residents have had mixed reactions to the proposed ban.

"I don't think it is fair to the kids," said Yucaipa resident Catherine Pols.

Lisa Postmus, of Beaumont, agrees. "I think any kid should be able to be educated this is not their fault they're here illegally or whatever," Postmus said.

"I think it would be hard to say no to children. You know children are the future for sure, so it's hard to punish the children for the crime of the parent," said teacher Sarah Bruinsma.

According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 12 percent of California's K-12 school children have an undocumented parent, but hard numbers are difficult to come by.

In 1982, the Supreme Court prohibited schools from inquiring about immigration status while also requiring that school districts educate every student living in the United States.

Turner hopes his initiative will help overturn the decision known as Plyer vs. Doe.

"Their future should not be in this country. We shouldn't be planning on them being here," Turner said of undocumented children.

http://abc7.com/politics/ca-activist...ation/1833903/

Just say "NO". NO education for children of illegal aliens. Period. None. We don't have the money, need or good purpose for this. This Plyler vs Doe was a wrong-headed stupid US Supreme Court Ruling, by people who are out of tune and out of touch with who pays for stuff, who suffers from foreign language speakers in their schools, who loses as a result of this stupid ruling, and who loses are Americans paying for it and American Kids losing out to it.

STOP IT ALL NOW.

School is out in June.

NO MORE ILLEGAL ALIENS IN OUR SCHOOLS. SELL OUT, PACK UP AND GET OUT!

Joseph Turner is the founder of American Children First, a nationalist issue advocacy organization. You can reach him by email at: info@americanchildrenfirst.org

They are not going to be denied education - we might could wish - but that's all.

As for school being out - it's not completely out in some places. Some cities have summer programs, one I read about a few years ago, was open for lunches everyday during the summer.

One school district wanted to use school buses to deliver lunches to them - at home - during summer vacation.

So no, they won't deny them education - our government(s) can't do enough for them.

Cut all federal funding for food stamps and free school lunch program. Do it now. When you really study the situation, you'll see that the only people federal money should be helping with nutrition or food programs are those on Medicare either through 100% disability or full age retirement, based on low incomes. I propose a nutrition supplement through SSA for low income participants paid for by SSA. I believe the savings through the additional nutrition would more than offset any need for payroll tax increase, but IF a minor payroll tax was needed to address this, I would totally 100% support it.

Everyone else, needs to go knocking on doors for jobs, demand more hours, higher wages and stop breeding 'em when you can't feed 'em.

Tell the states, cities, counties, charities and churches, eliminating hunger in your state, city and community is your responsibility, not that of the federal government.

Just phase out all federally funded food stamp and free school lunch programs before 2020, except those I suggest through SSA for disabled and low income retirees. Start it now so it can start going into effect next year.

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

http://image.sbsun.com/storyimage/LG...h=400&maxw=667Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District FILE PHOTO

By Beau Yarbrough, The Sun
POSTED: 04/11/17, 7:30 PM PDT | UPDATED: 1 MIN AGO
# COMMENTS

http://image.sbsun.com/storyimage/LG...h=400&maxw=667
Joseph Turner FILE PHOTO

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.

“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.sbsun.com/government-and-...chools-illegal

CA - Initiative to Ban Migrants in Schools Raises Economic Concerns