Student arrest fuels immigration debate
Mexican teen was in N.M. illegally, but should school grounds be off-limits?


Angry parents gather outside Roswell High School on Dec. 8, a day after student Karina Acosta was sent back to Mexico.

ROSWELL, N.M. — Karina Acosta’s senior year at Roswell High came to an abrupt end after she was ticketed for blocking a fire lane outside a school and driving without a license.

The officer who stopped her — a Roswell policeman assigned to the school — asked her for proof of legal U.S. residency. Acosta, an illegal immigrant, had none. The officer telephoned immigration authorities, and Acosta, 18 and pregnant, was sent back to Mexico.

The episode has caused a furor in town, with teachers and others complaining that Acosta’s treatment violated the spirit, if not the letter, of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has all but made the nation’s public schools safe havens for illegal immigrants.

“The school was considered a place you could come and not have to worry,â€