Thread: TX: Attorneys: Children in immigrant detention have equal ed

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... gjail.html

Attorneys: Children in immigrant detention have equal education
Friday, January 26, 2007

Children housed in an immigrant detention center in Taylor have legal rights to the same educational opportunities afforded students in public schools, attorneys for the Texas Civil Rights Project said Thursday as they urged officials to further expand daily classroom instruction at the center.

In a Jan. 24 letter to Taylor school Superintendent Bruce Scott, Williamson County Judge Dan A. Gattis and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center warden, project attorney Scott Medlock said children held at the center should receive seven hours of daily instruction as required by the Texas Education Code.

"As you know, state and federal law requires undocumented immigrant children be provided with educational opportunities equivalent to programs provided to other children," Medlock's letter states, citing a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe.

Reached later, Scott said that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency spokeswoman had asked him to let her respond to media inquiries.

The spokeswoman, Nina Pruneda, said the agency was investigating but would have no comment Thursday.

Williamson County spokeswoman Connie Watson said the federal agency, not the county, is responsible for the individuals it detains.

The privately operated, 512-bed Taylor jail began holding immigrant families in May under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America. Williamson County receives $1 per day for each inmate there.

The center is one of two in the country that detains families and children while the government determines whether they should be deported. The great majority of those held are from countries other than Mexico, and most seek asylum.

Texas Civil Rights Project Director James Harrington vowed legal action if school district, jail and county officials do not explain within 10 days how they plan to meet education law requirements.

"If they want to go through with holding children, then they're going to have to assume the responsibility of providing an education," Harrington said.

Pruneda confirmed this week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently expanded daily instruction at the center from one hour to four hours.

Medlock said that's not enough. Under the Texas Education Code, he said, school districts are required to provide students within their districts with seven hours of daily instruction 180 days a year. A Texas Education Agency spokeswoman confirmed that districts are obligated to provide educational services to children even if they are incarcerated.

The Texas Youth Commission, the state's juvenile corrections agency, provides full instructional days at its 13 facilities, said Deborah Nance, the commission's superintendent of education.

Nance said a public school district provides education at the agency's Sheffield campus, and the agency does so at its other facilities.

Some Williamson County residents and members of Texans United for Families, a coalition of community, civil rights and immigrant rights groups, have expressed outrage about the detention of families and children, saying it is immoral.

On Thursday night, they held a third candlelight vigil outside the detention center and called on county commissioners to end their lease agreement with Corrections Corporation of America.

The agreement, which expires Wednesday unless renewed, is on the commissioners' Tuesday agenda.

jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635

Well send them all back home to their own country...and all will be fixed

Some Williamson County residents and members of Texans United for Families, a coalition of community, civil rights and immigrant rights groups, have expressed outrage about the detention of families and children, saying it is immoral.

Would this outrage diminish if more illegal aliens came and your taxes had to go up to house these people, and educate them all? Would you still be outraged knowing they had housing, 3 square meals a day eating steak while you ate mac and cheese at home? Not to mention a better education than you had all coming out of your wallet? Why stop there, maybe you'd like to pay for new clothing so they looked good before going in front of a judge for deportation hearings, don't forget to give them medical care at tax payers expense so they could all be in good health before being deported. There would come a time when this outrage would disappear and you'd be demanding they stop this non-sense and deport them, instead of you working to keep illegal aliens educated, clothed, and given a lawyer for their hearings all just because they broke our laws as they came sneaking across our borders then demanding we owe them a life.

A little info on TCRP from their own site:

"TCRP was founded in 1990 as part of Oficina Legal del Pueblo Unido..."

It cites as its inspiration Cesar Chavez and displays this laughable bust of the activist:



The website cites these individuals as providing legal materials:

Prof. Michael A. Olivas (University of Houston Law Center)
Augustina H. Reyes (University of Houston)
Jorge G. Pineda (Attorney, Austin)
Prof. Olga Moya (South Texas College of Law)
Judge Orlinda Naranjo (Travis County Court at Law)
Prof. Jorge Ramírez (Texas Tech University School of Law)
Judge Gisela D. Triana (Travis County Court at Law)
Sen. Mario Gallegos, Jr. (Houston)
Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (Austin)
Lulu Flores (Attorney, Austin)
The Hendler Law Firm (Austin)
Judge Mario E. Ramírez, Jr. (Hidalgo County District Court)
Judge Noé González (Hidalgo County District Court)
Chief Justice Rogelio Valdez (Corpus Christi Court of Appeals)
Judge Aída Flores