Friday, March 29, 2024

No Second Class Citizens: School Districts Cannot Discriminate on Undocumented Children

Latino Children

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, President Obama’s administration displayed their strong disapproval about recent reports indicating school districts that have created enrollment barriers for children brought into the U.S. illegally.

“The message here is simple and it’s crystal clear: let all, all children living in the district enroll in public schools,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Secretary Duncan also reminded schools districts involved in this behavior of the 1982 Supreme Court decision where “the undocumented or non-citizen status of a student (or his or her parent or guardian) is irrelevant to that student’s entitlement to an elementary and secondary public education.”

Siding with Secretary Duncan’s message was U.S. Attorney General (AG) Eric Holder emphasizing that schools districts cannot discriminate against the children of undocumented parents and must enroll them as students.

“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,” said AG Holder

There have been a total of 17 states where the Office of Civil Rights has received complaints regarding this type of discrimination. These states include: Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, D.C

Though not allowing more than 11 million undocumented immigrants to live in this country properly is wrong, forbidding undocumented children a chance for a proper education is absolutely unjust.

Fox News Latino