AL Immigration Law Targets Children

In writing this law, Alabama legislators seem to forget that the question of whether to educate the children of undocumented immigrants reaches back decades and was resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981 with the case of Plyer v. Doe. This case dealt with revisions to education laws in Texas in 1975 that allowed the state to withhold funds from local school districts that would otherwise be used to educate the children of undocumented immigrants. The question of this case revolved around whether the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that the government cannot “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Court decided in a 5-4 vote that although undocumented immigrants and their children were not citizens of the United States or Texas, they were people “in any ordinary sense of the term” and were afforded the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, the Court struck down the Texas law on the grounds that it severely disadvantaged undocumented children by denying them access to an education.

Alabama legislators seem to have overlooked this case and the precedent it set, which grants children of undocumented immigrants full access to a public education. Although the provision in H.B. 56 requires schools to determine the immigration status of only newly enrolled students, the tactic of utilizing public schools as a forum to determine immigration status still led to the absence of up to 5,300 Hispanic students across the state in the two weeks after the law took effect; many parents now feel that schools are no longer one of the few safe places for their children.

Almost immediately after it was passed, H.B. 56 was challenged in court. The law survived mostly intact in its first court challenge and has now been brought before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has blocked the provision requiring schools to determine the immigration status of their students. The Appeals Court is expediting the appeals process and expects to hear arguments in the case within the next two months.

Until this case is decided, children should continue to receive a public education without the threat of deportation hanging over them and their families. Targeting immigrant children, many of whom were brought to this country through no action or decision of their own, is inexcusable.

Photo courtesy of the Press-Register.