http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami

Schools boot cross-border students

May 27, 2005

TUCSON, Arizona After a months-long investigation, more than 100 Mexican kids who crossed the border every day to attend schools in Arizona have been taken off the state's rolls, and the number is expected to rise.

The Arizona Department of Education said it has proof that some students, despite living in Mexico, are receiving free education in public schools on the other side of the border.

By law, the state must provide free public education to all children living within its borders, regardless of immigration status. The parents of children, however, must prove that they live in a school district by showing rental or utility receipts.

A trailer park employee said papers had been given to students so they could prove they were residents and register in the public schools.

Arizona Superintendent of Education Tom Horne said investigators were sent to the small town of Lukeville, where they filmed several students crossing the border to a school-bus stop and being taken to public schools in Ajo, Arizona.

Some of the children who cross the border each day are U.S. citizens who live with their parents in Mexico, which is why the Border Patrol agents at the border crossing allow them into the country.