Holder: Schools must enroll children of illegal immigrants
Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that all schools must enroll illegal immigrants as students, citing troubling reports that some districts are discriminating against the children of undocumented parents.
Public school districts have an obligation to enroll students regardless of immigration status and without discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, Mr. Holder said in a statement released Thursday by the Justice Department. He said the department will do everything it can to make sure schools meet this obligation.
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Mr. Holder was joined by Education Secretary Arne Duncan in issuing the new guidance to school administrators, telling them to be more flexible in accepting some documents from illegal parents and not to require others that may prove a childs age and residence. The guidance is an update to earlier guidelines the Justice Department issued to school systems in 2011.
Although schools have a right to establish a childs residency in a district, they dont need to require the parents to have state-issued drivers licenses or Social Security cards to prove they are in the country legally, the new guidelines state. Parents can produce a utility bill or a lease as a substitute.
The guidance is based on a 1982 Supreme Court decision that says children of illegal immigrants have a right to a public education. In Plyler v. Doe, the court struck down a Texas statute that denied funding for education to the children of illegal immigrants and a school districts attempt to charge undocumented persons an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each illegal immigrant student.
Some states and school boards have challenged the ruling, most notably California in 1994, when voters approved a referendum to deny all state-funded benefits including education to illegals. The courts later struck down the referendum.
In 1996, Congress tried to pass immigration legislation that would have allowed states to deny public education benefits to certain illegal aliens or to charge them tuition. But it was withdrawn after President Bill Clinton threatened to veto it.
School boards then began to take action against illegal immigrants by requiring Social Security numbers or drivers licenses. The also employed practices such as proposing separate schools for immigrant students and requiring paperwork designed to identify immigration status.
Today, schools in New York, New Jersey and Arizona, among others, routinely inquire into immigration status as part of the enrollment process, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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Holder: Schools must enroll children of illegal immigrants