Alabama Brings the Immigration Issue into the Classroom
One growing concern about H.B. 56 has been the effect that the law has had on education, particularly on immigrant children. Clearly, children are not immune to what takes place outside of school. That being said, the Alabama law takes the immigration issue one step further than any other state. By bringing the issue of immigration directly into the classroom, Alabama has created an even greater distraction for immigrant and nonimmigrant kids in school.
While some sections of the law were blocked by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Blackburn, likely the most controversial part of the law, section 28, was allowed to go into effect. Section 28 states that [e]very public elementary and secondary school in this state, at the time of enrollment in kindergarten or any grade in such school, shall determine whether the student enrolling in public school was born outside the jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully present in the United States.Therefore, the law requires that every public school in the state inquire into the immigration status of students and their parents when students enroll in school.
Schools cannot deny education to a child based on immigration status, as held by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982). The Court found that the Texas state statute in the case violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Equal Protection clause because the state failed to show that it had a substantial government interest. The Court also explained that denying children access to education imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status .... By denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute even in the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.Id. at 223.Therefore, kids like Celina, who crossed the border with their parents as children, should not be persecuted for the acts of their parents.
While there is no rationale given for section 28 by the state of Alabama, many state residents have expressed concerns over tax dollars and how an increase in immigration to Alabama over the last ten years has affected the public school systems. According to the 2010 Census, Alabama had the second highest growth of Latino population in the country since 2000. However, the Alabama lawmakers who sponsored the bill have shown clear evidence of prejudice against racial or national origin minorities. Senator Scott Beason used a racial slur while wearing a wire during an FBI investigation into an alleged vote-buying scheme. Representative Micky Hammon quoted numbers of Alabama's Hispanic population when asked about how many undocumented immigrants were in the state. During a legal challenge to one section of H.B. 56, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson cited examples of Alabama lawmakers using the terms Hispanic and illegal immigrant interchangeably. Judge Thompson stated that the H.B. 56 legislative debate was laced with derogatory comments about Hispanics.
Regardless of the intent behind section 28, the DOJ issued a memo in May to state agencies explaining that the immigration status of students is irrelevant in administering education. Further, schools cannot use that information to discriminate against students of a particular race or national origin. While the law does not facially discriminate against Hispanics, it clearly has had that effect since its enactment.
The Monday after H.B. 56 took effect, 2,285 Latino students were absent from school out of the 34,000 Latino students statewide. That absentee rate is nearly double what it would be on a normal day. Over fear of Alabama's immigration law, many parents elected to keep their kids out of school. The DOJ memo also recommended that states review their enrollment procedures to ensure that they do not have a chilling effect on education. Drops in attendance of Hispanics, such as the one in Alabama, are evidence of a potential barrier to education that violates the United States' long line of cases that ensure all children of a right to an education. Even though section 28 was later blocked by the Eleventh Circuit Court, the damage had been done.
In the first few months after the enactment of H.B. 56, the Latino community in Alabama was in a complete panic. Even the elected state officials will admit that the seventy-page law is extremely confusing. Imagine how an immigrant, who may not speak English proficiently, would fare in deciphering it.
To further complicate an understanding of H.B. 56, there have been many developments in the courts as to which sections are blocked as well as interpretations made in different counties and city governments on parts of the law. Since the law went into effect, government agencies, religious organizations, and many nonprofit organizations, including HICA!, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Alabama Apple-seed, have worked diligently to educate the community on the contents of the law. However, there is virtually no way to educate everyone on how the law is being interpreted in each county. I have spoken with many school officials and law enforcement officers that stated that they had absolutely zero training on H.B. 56 before the law took effect. Furthermore, there are no provisions in the law to provide funding for this dramatic expansion of state employees' duties.
Numerous teachers have reported that children have been unable to concentrate because they are fearful or are being bullied. Immigrant children, both those with immigration status and those without, do not know if they will be back in school the next day. One parent reported that her Puerto Rican and therefore U.S. citizen son was asked by a classmate if he had a green card. When her son answered in the negative, the classmate said, You'll have to leave the country.
Even children who are not being bullied have been significantly less attentive in the classroom. Jefferson County ESL Coordinator Lari Valtierra explained that many immigrant children, even those who are U.S. citizens, have their bags packed in case they need to leave Alabama. Children call home during the day to see if their parents are still there or if police or immigration picked them up. One Birmingham area teacher had to reassure a legal permanent resident student that she did not need to go home to check to see if her parents, who are also legal permanent residents, had been detained. Children are also fearful of their parents losing their jobs, which would mean that they would no longer be able to obtain health insurance. Valtierra explains that H.B. 56 has affected high school students more than middle and elementary school kids. Some teenagers have begun working forty hours per week in addition to attending school to help support their family because one or both parents have been detained or fired due to their immigration status.
Several schools have tried to help Hispanic kids by giving them flyers on the immigration law. However, some parents reported that their children received the papers because they had foreign-sounding names or because the school felt that they looked like immigrants. In providing this information to people based on their national origin or race, it differentiates children from their classmates and further drives the wedge that Alabama has created between immigrant and nonimmigrant children.
