Thread: Population of Hispanic Children Surges

Population of Hispanic Children Surges
by B. Jay Johnson

New information has been released that is sure to set off new debate in the battle over illegal immigration here in the southeast.

Tennessee and Georgia had double-digit percentage increases in their populations of Hispanic children between 2000 and 2005. The new numbers come from a report released on July 25 by the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation.

"We live in a global society now," said Pam Brown, Tennessee state director for the Kids Count project.

The new report shows a 58 percent increase in the population of Hispanic children in Georgia between 2000 and 2005. It reveals a 49 percent increase in Tennessee for the same time period.

Ms. Brown said the influx of Hispanic children into schools and the broader community will help non-Hispanic children prepare to work and live around people of all backgrounds.

But educators and health professionals in both states said the influx of Hispanic and immigrant children also has sparked a need for more health and social services for Spanish-speaking children and their parents.

"We need to look at those children as we would any other group that has special needs," said Brown.

Ira Mehlman has a different point of view. "There is a high cost to taxpayers when so many children of immigrants, particularly those who don't speak English, arrive in a community," he said.

Mehlman is the national director for the Federation of American Immigration Reform. The organization is a national non-profit, nonpartisan group that advocates stricter enforcement of illegal immigration laws.

"This large influx of immigration, in part, has provided a form of subsidized labor for some industries," said Mehlman. "Then everyone else has to pay for the education and for the health care.

The Kids Count report ranked both Tennessee and Georgia better than last year in terms of the well-being of all children. Tennessee moved from 46th to 43rd out of 50 states, while Georgia jumped from 44th to 41st. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is based in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan organization with a mission of assisting and supporting vulnerable children and families.

The population of Hispanic children was one of a number of measures in the Kids Count report, including infant mortality rates, teen pregnancy rates and the number of children in each state living in poverty.

Efrain Cintron came to north Georgia from Puerto Rico to work as a Hispanic project coordinator 18 years ago when the Hispanic population in the area was just a few thousand. Now he is a lab technician at the Whitfield County Health Department.

Cintron says he spends much of his time helping Spanish-speaking families at the health department navigate vaccinations, exams and translating for other staff members. "Today, more than half the families coming through the Children's Access Clinic are Hispanic," said Cintron.

"In 1990 they didn't have a bilingual program, but now it is almost a must," he said. "We have to help direct the Hispanic families to the resources that are out there."

Nowhere is the surge in population of Hispanic children more evident than at schools in the region.

East Side Elementary School principal Emily Baker remembers when Dalton's Hispanic and immigrant populations were far smaller than today. She recalled years when only 10-15 children were enrolled in English-as-a-second-language classes. "Last year's ESL enrollment at the school was 256," she said.

"The diversity the school has with the student population is tremendous," said Baker. "It's a good experience for children from another country to see children from the U.S. and the other way around."

She said most of the non-English speaking children are Hispanic, but the school also has students from Sudan, Liberia and Somalia.

Ms. Brown said the influx of Hispanics helps children "begin to understand how other cultures work."

This year's Kids Count report included a special section devoted to examining how children in state custody fare in each state. The report's authors examined how often children in foster care are placed with permanent families, and an essay accompanying the report highlighted some states' successful programs placing children with families.

Tennessee has seen a dramatic improvement in that area, Ms. Brown said.

Both Tennessee and Georgia are close to the national average in the number of children who were in foster care in 2004, according to the report.

About nine children in Tennessee were in foster care for every 1,000 children younger than 18, and 10 in every 1,000 were in foster care in Georgia, the report found.

On another subject related to illegal immigration, local law enforcement in northeast Tennessee, for the most part, are not enforcing federal immigration laws, even though the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Customs Enforcement have developed a means for them to help keep track of illegal immigrants by way of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Kingsport Police Deputy Chief Dale Phipps says his department doesn't typically bother enforcing federal immigration laws because illegals "are not a major concern" in that area.

He said the problem would have to be a sizeable one to warrant spending such a large amount of money and time - roughly $520 per officer for five weeks of training, learning how to properly enforce federal immigration lawns.

The Bradley News has reported in recent weeks on 287 (g) the program that provides the training to local law enforcement.

The Bradley County Sheriff's Office wants to implement 287 (g). Sheriff Tim Gobble says his department is currently in the application process of attaining 287 (g).

Many residents in the Kingsport area are upset with police departments in their area. One man said, "This is the problem now! No enforcement of laws. If immigrants don't have to obey the law of the land, why should we?"

http://bradleyweekly.com/news.cfm?id=5371&issue=297

I think there has never been such a sudden and intensive demographic change troghout the history of the world. Not even during the end of the Roman Imperium.

I find a term "ethnical cleansing" appropriate for what is going on in the USA and Europe.

Originally Posted by Lugundum

I think there has never been such a sudden and intensive demographic change troghout the history of the world. Not even during the end of the Roman Imperium.

I find a term "ethnical cleansing" appropriate for what is going on in the USA and Europe.

Maybe culture "displacement" is a better term. Cause its not like we are being "cleansed" out of America but our culture is certainly going! Globalism is what the Paperheads want and they will get it by "unifying" every continuant at a time!!! It seems that the Northern and Western Hemisphere are the first targets to this nightmare!!! I would love to see them try to unify Africa or South America!!!

Typical drivel from what I'm guessing is some useless grant(and maybe taxpayer) funded non-proft. The US has made an avocation of importing social problems and then proceeding to wring its hands over how to rectify them. And who lives in a "global society" besides Western nations? We might as well say that the West has consented to be overwhelmed with the planet's teemng masses, while everywhere else it's business as usual. I guess they had their turn with "colonization".

By the way, I used to work for a very highly funded project of the Annie Casey foundation. I know first hand they waste millions of dollars on lofty-sounding social projects yielding few significant results.

Originally Posted by BorderLegionnaire

Originally Posted by Lugundum

I think there has never been such a sudden and intensive demographic change troghout the history of the world. Not even during the end of the Roman Imperium.

I find a term "ethnical cleansing" appropriate for what is going on in the USA and Europe.

Maybe culture "displacement" is a better term. Cause its not like we are being "cleansed" out of America but our culture is certainly going! Globalism is what the Paperheads want and they will get it by "unifying" every continuant at a time!!! It seems that the Northern and Western Hemisphere are the first targets to this nightmare!!! I would love to see them try to unify Africa or South America!!!

Yea and No. Even UK Guardian printed that story about Hispanic gangs picking up on Blacks.

However I agree, it is about globalisation. If the people are divided, kept in fear and chased from one country to another without having any roots than you have ideal enviroment for global dictatorship. For normal people there is nothing to gain. We could only end like lawless slaves.

Ms. Brown said the influx of Hispanic children into schools and the broader community will help non-Hispanic children prepare to work and live around people of all backgrounds.

I personally find this offensive. How about just raising your kid to be respectful and mindful of everyone regardless of race? Why always so much emphasis on race? I personally want my children around families who are American citizens or legal citizens, law-abiding, hardworking and who love this country. I could care less what color/ethnicity they are.

I accept people for who they are. If they are good people,I want to be around them. If they are bad people, I don't.

AMEN Nicole. I too find that statement offensive. In America we have had a very diverse background of people from all sorts of different cultures. I mean right back to the cowboy days with Chinese who helped build our railways. To slavery.....Geeze....even Bonanza and all those old flicks had the Mexicans and such in their stories. They aren't NEW. Their "impact" from what I've seen has been nothing but total division and having all non-hispanic children getting used to the idea of being discriminated against and tolerance for the abuse.

We had colorful charts in our paper today about the demographics of the students vs what the teachers were. All I can say is forget it if you are white now and want to be a teacher. No......we have schools.....especially elementary.....where it's majority hispanic, and then pretty much equal between blacks and whites. But white teachers are the majority across the board.......they said this must change to reflect the demographics of the area. Now.....isn't that racism? If it's a majority of any other race.....it's ok....poor asians weren't even counted. I remember bussing and we have schools here where the white ratio didn't get much more than a sliver......bet we won't see white bussing to make sure those hispanic students learn to live in a "more diverse" atmosphere. Seems the ones who aren't accepting of other backgrounds are the hispanics. Not by color or by language or by culture.