Should undocumented students be allowed to attend school?
Tuesday, September 07, 2010 at 10:13 am
- 4 Comments
Anti-immigration rhetoric has recently taken a bizarre turn to targeting children, with a flood of statements about the possibility of denying citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants. The latest push comes in the form of opposition to the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyer v. Doe — which allows children of illegal immigrants access to public education.
Kim Reynolds, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Iowa, said undocumented children should not be allowed access to public education, The Iowa Independent reported today:
Reynolds was asked about immigration policy while attending the annual Latino Heritage Festival in Des Moines. Her running mate, former Gov. Terry Branstad, recently told WHO-AM’s Jan Mickelson that the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe — which said the children of illegal immigrants must be allowed access to public education — should be overturned.
While discussing the issue on Saturday, Reynolds said she agrees with Branstad’s position but would not go as far as to say that they would act directly against the law as it stands if they are elected this fall.
Colorado gubernatorial candidate — and harsh opponent of illegal immigration — Tom Tancredo took his opposition even further. He said last week that if elected he would try to bring the issue back to the Supreme Court by denying public education to undocumented children.
Right now, the right of children to attend school is protected by Supreme Court precedent, and in New York, schools were discouraged last week from asking any question related to documentation. Immigrants rights advocates also argue denying education to students is morally wrong and would have negative consequences for society as a whole. There are about 1.1 million undocumented children living in the U.S., according to estimates from Pew Hispanic Center, and educating them unquestionably uses taxpayer funds. But many illegal immigrants do pay taxes, although it’s difficult to determine to what extent.
4 Comments
Comment posted September 7, 2010 @ 8:06 pm
Illegal should NOT be intitled to anything because they are lawbreakers.
If they get a little, they think they deserve everything.
By recieving benefits from this country, thay have no reason to become legal.
Comment posted September 12, 2010 @ 8:11 am
“Immigrants rights advocates also argue denying education to students is morally wrong and would have negative consequences for society as a whole.”
Well, you know what? You could make that same argument for free food, clothing and shelter. But the last I looked only the indigent in our society were being given those things, out of the kindness of the taxpayers. Are we suggesting that all illegal immigrants are indigent?
“But many illegal immigrants do pay taxes, although it’s difficult to determine to what extent.”
They pay sales taxes. But if you went into a foreign country, you’d pay sales taxes on anything you purchased too. Would that then give you the right to expect free government services including free education?
Comment posted September 18, 2010 @ 8:21 am
William and Dennis,
Clearly you are not looking at the bigger picture.
William said, and I quote “Illegals should NOT be intitled to anything because they are lawbreakers”
-That is the poorest argument I have ever heard. That’s like me saying you shouldn’t be entitled to anything because you were speeding or because you only did a rolling stop. That’s breaking the law as well.
The way that I look at it is that if their life is so bad that they have to sneak into our country and risk the dangers that it entails, then they must have had a pretty tough and horrible life. Who am I to say that they don’t deserve a chance at something better? Can you try to put yourself in their place…? Did you forget that your ancestors came to this country? What if they hadn’t – what kind of life would you be leading right now?
Several undocumented immigrants don’t sneak into the country – they come on a work visa – that expires – and they are unaware of how to renew it.
Should a child who came here with his or her family (who had no say in whether they came or not or stayed or not)be sent back to a place that was never really their home?
From experience, the immigrants that I have met have been the nicest and most generous people. They were ALWAYS willing to help out – even when they had little money to give. Perhaps they can make some laws that if someone commits a felony then they have to go back.
As far as I’m concerned…let the immigrants stay and make the criminals all over the United States leave.
Comment posted November 21, 2010 @ 4:32 pm
Of course they should be able to attend school. Any argument against, i.e. it’s illegal blah, blah, blah, is just an easy cover for all you unpatriotic racists. This country was built on expanding education to marginalized populations like women, native americans, and blacks. Now we are complaining about the children of undocumented workers? You complainers are all of bunch of selfish naysayers with hearts of stone. Rather than treating these people like criminals, we should be incorporating them into our society for our own growth and betterment. Instead of casting them back to from whence they came, let’s figure out how to tax these people if that will help you jerks grow a soul.
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