Thread: School Enrollment Down Following Swift Raids

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_043160427.html

Feb 12, 2007 2:58 pm US/Central

School Enrollment Down Following Swift Raids
(AP) Grand Island, Neb. Sandra Sanchez is waiting for her husband's appearance before an immigration judge in April before she decides on whether she will move to Mexico with her daughter and son.

She's hoping her husband can somehow emerge from a federal detention center in Atlanta and reunite with the children in Grand Island, Neb. so the kids can remain in the city's public schools.

The couple's son and daughter are two of 61 students in Grand Island Public Schools who had at least one parent arrested in the Dec. 12 immigration raid of the local Swift & Co. meatpacking plant, according to district officials.

The 261 arrests in Grand Island were part of a wide-ranging raid of Swift plants in six states by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

A total of 1,282 alleged illegal workers were arrested. Raids also were conducted in Greeley, Colo.; Hyrum, Utah; Cactus, Texas; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

School districts in those cities said they experienced a sharp drop in attendance immediately following the raids.

Grand Island Superintendent Steve Joel said 25 students in his district were left without both parents after the raid. All were taken in by other relatives, according to district official Kerri Nazarenus.

District officials said many parents arrested in the raid have yet to go to court, and their families probably won't decide whether they'll stay in Grand Island while their cases are pending.

"We won't truly know what numbers we're going to lose until court appearances are finalized," said Brad Wentzlaff, principal of Lincoln Elementary School. "Once those court appearances come, those families will have to make those decisions."

Wentzlaff said 19 students from his school had one or both parents arrested in the raids. Between five and seven did not return, he said.

ICE officials have said agents released 27 people from custody the day of the raid in Grand Island -- 100 were released nationwide -- in large part to prevent kids from going to an empty house after school.

On the day of the raids, agents asked workers on site if they had children. Many said no, fearing their children would be taken from them.

Since then, Grand Island's school enrollment has fluctuated. Most of the affected students trickled back to class in the following weeks, cared for by one parent or other relatives. Other students left for good to rejoin family who immediately left the country.

School officials in other districts reported similar fluctuations -- enrollment numbers dipped at first but have mostly recovered since. Districts in Greeley, Worthington, Marshalltown and Cactus did not keep specific numbers of students who had been directly affected by the raids.

School officials in Hyrum did not immediately respond to a request for information from The Associated Press.

One mother in Grand Island, who did not want to be named because she feared it would affect her husband's immigration case, said if she had no children, she would follow her husband if he were deported. But her two daughters were born in Grand Island, one of whom is a third-grader in the district.

"For me, it's not very hard," she said through an interpreter. "But my oldest daughter, she just doesn't want to leave."

Sanchez says her family won't decide what to do until an immigration judge rules on her husband's case.

Enrollment in Grand Island largely recovered in the 8,000-student district by the end of December. But district officials said they're not sure how many of those students will stay, as parents go through immigration court and families struggle with deciding on whether to stay.

"The normal environment of school has been good for kids," said Nazarenus, who said her job as the district's director of English Language Acquisition has drastically shifted since the raids.

"We've tried to provide a lot of extra support right now," she said.

Larry Appel, superintendent of the Dumas Independent School District, which covers Cactus, said about 20 students withdrew from Cactus Elementary School immediately after the raid.

But he could not confirm that all those students left because of the raids. About 12 came back soon after, Appel said.

Cactus Elementary School has an enrollment of about 470 students, 99 percent Hispanic, according to the district Web site.

In Marshalltown, officials estimate 40 students have left the district because of the Swift raid, said spokeswoman Donna Walker.

"It's not happening all at the same time," Walker said. "We all kind of wonder how it will all shake out, but no one is speculating on how that might be, especially on enrollment for next year."

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said once the Swift arrestees were processed the day of the raids, case files for those facing immigration charges were forwarded to the Executive Office of Immigration Review, where they were being processed along with other immigration cases.

Once there, it could take a few weeks or longer before a judge ruled on the case, ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said.

Lower child/ teacher ratio should help all the American children.

ICE officials have said agents released 27 people from custody the day of the raid in Grand Island -- 100 were released nationwide -- in large part to prevent kids from going to an empty house after school.

But for any U.S Citizen who is arrested for any crime, the status quo for their children is CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND CUSTODY!

Go figure, the criminal illegal is released to ensure the continuous supervision of illegal offspring, and continued attendance in schools at citizens' expense!
God forbid that the "family unit" be disturbed!

What a crock of crap! Give the illegals a chance to move and stow their offspring elsewhere while their "case" meanders through the leisurely justice system!

Since when are Illegals entitled to trial or even judicial consideration of any type? Am I dreaming? Is this really happening?