“U.S. Warns Schools Against Checking Immigration Status” is the headline of a New York Times article this morning. Here’s how it begins:
Federal officials issued a memorandum to the nation’s school districts on Friday saying it was against the law for education officials to seek information that might reveal the immigration status of children applying for enrollment.
Civil liberties advocates and others have complained in recent months that many school districts are seeking children’s immigration papers as a prerequisite for enrollment. Some state and local officials have also considered bills to require prospective students to reveal their citizenship or immigration status.
It was clearly necessary for the federal government to issue this memorandum. And that is sad….
It has been proven time and time again that immigrants give more to a country than they take away in the form of social services or what have you, but people insist on believing the opposite. Oh well.
Some questions cross my mind about this: Why is it a problem to check status unless the status is illegal? If the status is illegal, why are we protecting that which is unlawful? I am all for immigrants—my granfather was a immigrant. He came here under great hardship, worked very hard, learned the language, became a citizen, joined the military and fought in WW1. Isn’t there a distinction between immigrants and illegal immigrant? What is it that we don’t understand about illegal and their…rights? The irony just doen’t stop.