Thread: Schools say students suffer when migrants rounded up

42 comments left so far after this article.
~~~

Schools say students suffer when migrants rounded up
Children are left stranded, urban educators are told
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 24, 2008, 11:02PMShare

The increasing number of raids on undocumented immigrants is putting a hardship on public schools, who are left to care for students stranded on campus after parents are taken into custody, leaders of some of the nation's largest school systems said Friday.

Administrators said some parents are now being asked to provide 10 emergency contacts to pick up a child in case a raid displaces families. Others are making sure updated records show where parents are employed, so they can quickly identify which families might be affected by a sting.

Raids are straining school systems' already limited resources and putting at-risk children in greater danger of dropping out of school, experts said.

"Many of the costs are falling on children," Rosa Maria Casteneda, a research associate with the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, told a sparsely attended panel at the Council of the Great City Schools' conference in downtown Houston Friday. "These children are not expendable."

Urban superintendents admitted they have a tough time with the politically charged issue.

"The answer's not that simple. If you just bring up the topic, automatic division occurs," Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said. "You need to know what you're doing when you go into this."

Ultimately, though, school officials follow the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 ruling in Plyler v. Doe that says every child is entitled to attend public school, regardless of their immigration status. About 5 million children have at least one undocumented parent, but about two-thirds of those youngsters are American citizens, Casteneda said.

Parents must be reassured that schools are safe places to send their children, said San Francisco Superintendent Carlos Garcia, who added that he would go to jail before letting ICE officials raid one of his campuses. Garcia, himself a legal immigrant, said he remembers being terrified of immigration officials when he was growing up in Southern California.

"We were so conditioned just to run," he said. "Kids didn't make the decision to be here. They're children. They deserve an education."

District leaders said they've been assured by immigration officials that campuses won't be raided. Still, enforcement activities at businesses and neighborhoods have major impact on schools, they said.

About 420 individuals were picked up in raids in Los Angeles last month, school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar said. About 25 percent of the children in affected families ended up in foster care, she said.

"These raids are happening right now in our neighborhoods," she said, adding that social workers, psychologists and teachers must be available to help children cope with a parent's sudden absence.

Officials from Dallas and Houston said a major raid hasn't affected their campuses yet, but they know the possibility always exists. District leaders said they need to improve efforts to coordinate services in case of that type of event.

HISD spokesman Norm Uhl said HISD will consider some of the ideas from Friday's panel, including increasing the number of emergency contacts for students.

"We think that's a great idea," he said.

Houston has been the site of several raids in the last two years, including one this summer at the Action Rags USA plant.

Of the 166 workers detained, 66 were released that day for humanitarian reasons, including pregnancy and child care issues. They were asked to report to an immigration judge.

School attendance decreases significantly when rumors of a raid surface, Uhl said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 77351.html

Ultimately, though, school officials follow the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 ruling in Plyler v. Doe that says every child is entitled to attend public school, regardless of their immigration status.

The ruling has got to go! That 1982 ruling is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. And its now costing us even more because of "special services" that have to be bought in because illegal alien parents are being arrested and deported. Illegal aliens chilren should not be allowed to get an education in our schools - PERIOD.

The increasing number of raids on undocumented immigrants is putting a hardship on public schools, who are left to care for students stranded on campus after parents are taken into custody, leaders of some of the nation's largest school systems said Friday.

Well I guess the obvious answer to that would be pick up the child and send them with the parents. I will be happy to list myself as a volunteer to pick the child up from school and take them to ICE where the parent is being held. I would be busy at D.I.S.D. if Dallas ever got the balls to do something.

The less students in the school the LESS MONEY $$$ for the school. Its all about greed there.

"We were so conditioned just to run," he said. "Kids didn't make the decision to be here. They're children. They deserve an education."

No, the kids didn't make the decision to be here. That decision was made by their illegal parents. Deserve an education? Unfortunately no one investigates whether the children were born here or were shipped across the border.
I think every parent withholding their child from school when raid stories are flying, has to be illegally here and should be seriously looked at if we are paying for illegal children (those shoved across the border without permission from this country) are getting an education.
The 14th amendment should be rewritten as well.
I have nothing against kids, but I wonder what is happening to our schools trying to take care of the swarm of chldren produced by illegals. There is only so much pressure that can be put on the American population before we are totally bankrupt.

The schools are not responsible for their care, call Child Services, who will reunite them with their families.

Schools say students suffer when migrants rounded up

I agree with that statement.

Every time a "migrant" gets rightly hauled in, an American citizen student suffers!

I would have to see that law
." all children have a right to an education" this I believe, meaning all American children.

I would bet that "regardless of immigration status " is not in that law or decision at all.

The error is not in the Forteenth Amendment it in the subsequent interpretation written by Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray in the Wong Kim Ark Decision. In the Amendment it says that children born under the jurisdiction of the United States are automatically citizens. What we have now though is children born to parents living in violation, defiance and contempt of the United States jurisdiction. Wong Kim Ark after all was born to legal immigrants. If the illegal alien parents were turning themselves in to immigration before the birth of their children and the children were born during the time their cases were being adjudicated I would say that they have the basis for an argument. That is not what is happening they wait until the children are born and then try to argue for amnesty as parents of United States citizens. The status of the children should not excuse the parents and they should be required to be sent with the parents if they are deported

Found this on Google search re US v. Wong Kim Ark, 1898.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/htm...9_0649_ZS.html