Blog 9: Critics See ‘Chilling Effect’ in Alabama Immigration Law

Alabama’s new immigration law is intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state by making every aspect of their life difficult. To them, this does not include education, though. During a court filing, Luther Strange, the state attorney general argued “no child will be denied an education based on unlawful status.” This law is a step in the state’s strategy to topple the ruling that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are guaranteed a public education. A provision written in the law requires all primary and secondary schools to record the immigration status of incoming students and their parents and pass that data on to the state. This is a tactic to scare immigrants away from schools. In appeals court, the provision did not pass because it violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause, saying that the statute “imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable” for their immigration status. The court also said that the state had not presented evidence showing it was substantially harmed by giving these children a free public education.

I think that this law has good intentions, but the provisions and policies within it are unreasonable. It is a positive to know how many illegal immigrants are in the state for census and government purposes. But, by purposely making these immigrants’ life harder than it already is seems unnecessary, especially when it comes to a child’s education. If a state wants to make a plan to lessen the illegal immigrants in the state, that is one topic. To take a free education away from a child, who has no say in whether they live in the United States or their country of origin, is unlawful and disgusting. American’s who think this is a reasonable solution are supporting illegal immigrants working low wage jobs. If the child does not have a chance to become educated, they will only be able to obtain a job that American’s complain about them working. They then create a viscous cycle of discrimination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/us/alabama-immigration-laws-critics-question-target.html?ref=education