Immigration Raids on Families Lead to Rapidly Dropping ELL Student Attendance in Public Schools

America is caught in the middle of an immigration divide. Various political action groups and private citizens want to fence our borders and sent people with cloudy or illegal immigration status back home. Other Human Rights Groups, Business Professionals and Economists see immigration as a complex issue without a clear solution. Still, immigration raids go on and vast deportee prison camps spring up until detainees are either deported or allowed to return to work. Children are caught up in this debate as families are broken up and redistributed. In turn, schools are ensnared in this crossfire of words and laws as they struggle with student populations whose numbers may literally shift overnight.

Enter the Supreme Court

Many people are surprised to learn that students - learners - have a special status in the area of immigration law. The Supreme Court has routinely upheld the right to learn in our Nation. "Another landmark case taken all the way to the Supreme Court was Plyler Vs. Doe (1982). The resultant ruling of the highest court in the United States guarantees the Rights of undocumented immigrants to free public education" (Ovando, et all, 2006, p. 78). Again, this common sense decision maintains the right to acquire the skills necessary to obtain employment in our society. Many of these students with clouded immigration status are just beginning to become English Language Learners (ELL) but may have a home understanding of English and therefore are labeled as Limited English Proficient or LEP. Schools must provide these students with an education and thus must reach out and help these students with varying forms of bilingual education.

On the other hand, parents with illegal status do not have the same protections under the law. Adequate educational access is often denied and there is a constant fear of being deported back to their native country. Students too may be deported but Immigration Agents typically focus on workers at job sites rather than students at school. And parents are workers. "While immigration raids typically leave schools alone, there is no rule baring them from picking up parents during morning drop off" (Jordan, 2007). The end result for these parents is an underlying fear of using an educational system that offers a notably narrow degree of protection.

Where is Daddy and Mommy?

The Bush administration has not made a clear decision as to the next step to be taken in immigration status and deportation proceedings. However, the administration has silently given the nod for increased raids. The result has been large numbers of parents sitting in jail awaiting deportation hearings and students boarding with friends or relatives without parental support. "When José Mora tucks his 7-year-old niece into bed at night, she often asks, "Where's my mommy?" He doesn't want to say that her mother is in a Des Moines jail awaiting a hearing that could result in her being deported to Mexico" (Keen, 2007).

The numbers caught in the raids are large and represent a sizable percentage of surrounding local communities and school districts. "The office has grown under his leadership and has increased the number of illegal immigrants detained from 19,718 a day in 2005 to about 26,500 now, and a projected 32,000 this summer" (Torres, 2007). The net effect on school populations has been dramatic. High School classes can literally disappear overnight. The result of one set of raids in the town of Schuyler near Grand Island, Nebraska created a dramatic decrease in the lower grades of a local high school - "370 students were absent in the lower grades, 60% more than usual" (Jordan, 2007).

Living In Hiding

What happens when students are too afraid to attend school due to the threat of immigration raids on family members, or the sudden deportation of their parents? Many children stay out of school in an attempt to avoid immigration authorities, or are even discouraged from going to school under the watchful eye of cautious relatives. The result is a virtual epidemic of illiteracy so alarming that school districts are scrambling to find staff capable of easing fears and worries over deportation. Principal Kris Burling took to the streets in a heavily Hispanic area near Howard Elementary. At every house, she could hear music, TVs and shuffling inside. But when she knocked - no one would come to the door" (Jordan, 2007). Trust is slow to build between concerned school district staffs, deported relatives and frightened children.

Public School staff have mixed feelings over the raids but they tend to agree that children still need - and must - attend school or else we will simply have a generation of children who are unable to read and write in their new native language. Immigration policies have changed in regards to fears over children status but some would argue that the new rules are more harmful than breaking up family units. "ICE currently operates two family detention centers. This allows ICE to detain family units together...Historically, families were released from custody because of a lack of family detention space." (Torres, 2007).

The Next Day at School

Increased raids may alter school populations and cause havoc with school budgets and staff but the reality is that the school must still find a way to teach the students who are not coming to school. In a series of coordinated raids, over a thousand people with questionable immigration status were arrested and detained. "A total of 1,282 alleged illegal workers were arrested. Raids also were conducted in Greeley, Colo.; Hyrum, Utah; Cactus, Texas; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn. School districts in those cities said they experienced a sharp drop in attendance immediately following the raids" (Associated Press, 2007). How can schools adequately budget for rapidly shifting student populations while also developing plans to help students who are unable or are too fearful to come to school?

Unfortunately, proving and maintaining the resources necessary to cope with large scale immigration raids is almost a Herculean task that is beyond the means of any single school district. Federal and State Education Officials are caught in the unique role of having to help the children while coordinating the arrest of family workers who are employed or have invalid work documents. Still, the burden generally falls to each state to balance the load with impacted school districts. "Since the U.S. Constitution delegates most education decision-making to the states, school policies for language minority students are strongly influenced by legislation and funding sources at the state level" (Ovando et all, 2006, p. 79).

States with strained budgets are ill-prepared to handle these initially small but rapidly spreading disasters at school districts throughout the country. "An aspect of immigration rarely noted is the uneven way its disadvantages are distributed. In Texas, for example, immigration is often cited as a drain on taxpayers, from public school budgets to municipal and county law enforcement funds" (Combs, 2007). The result is children who sit at home and wait for parents who will most likely never return while trying to ignore that knock on the door.

References:

Associated Press (2007). School Enrollment Down Following Swift Raids WCCO retrieved July 31, 2007 from http://wcco.com/local/local_story_043160427.html

Combs, S. (2007). Crossing the Line Window on State Government , Susan Combs, Comptroller of Public Accounts retrieved August 8, 2007 from http://www.window.state.tx.us/border/ch11/ch11.html

Jordan, M. (2007) At Public School, Immigration Raids Require New Drill Wall Street Journal

Keen, J. (2007). Effects of Raid Still Felt in Iowa Town USA Today retrieved August 8, 2007 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-11-marshalltown-raid_x.htm

Ovando et all (2006). Bilingual & ESL Classrooms Boston, MA McGraw Hill

Torres, J. (2007). Increase in Arrests Strains Immigration Agency - Transcript of Interview with Director John Torres WashingtonPost.com retrieved August 10, 2007 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/02/02/DI2007020201583.html