In Praise of Immigrant Students

In Praise of Immigrant Students

June 11, 2007 - The Nation - For now, immigration reform has died an inglorious death in the US Senate, beaten to death by John Cronyn, Republican from Texas, and others of his party who seem to think that behind every effort to facilitate the entry of foreigners seeking employment in this country, and to legalize the status of nearly 12 million hardworking immigrants already here, lurks an open invitation to criminals, terrorists and other undesirables from whom the country needs protection. Given this decidedly unflattering view of the character and motivation of America's immigrant population, it comes as no surprise that Senator Cronyn and others in his party of family values also see no reason to provide additional visas for foreigners who seek to be reunited with close family members already in the country as US citizens or lawful permanent residents, another stumbling block to passage of compromise legislation.

As I read the headlines about continuing deadlock in the nation's capital on immigration reform, I cannot help but think back to the very different perspective I gained on the matter as I participated for the first time as a new faculty member in commencement exercises held just over a week ago at New York's august Radio City Music Hall for the inspiring graduates of Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Here at Hunter, approximately one-third of our students are foreign born, and many more are the children of immigrants, most of them first-time college graduates in their families. Hunter students hail from some 150 different countries and speak nearly 100 languages. Here in the city that has welcomed the world's downtrodden for more than two centuries, we continue to educate and offer opportunity to a proverbial melting pot of talented and ambitious young people--or, as former New York Mayor David Dinkins liked to call them, the "gorgeous mosaic" that illustrates our noblest aspirations for our city and country and offers the greatest promise for our future.


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Tyler case opened schools to illegal migrants

June 11, 2007 - Dallas Morning News - All Jose Lopez wanted for his children was the education he did not receive in Mexico.
But when he and his wife, Lidia, tried to enroll them in elementary school here in 1977, they were turned away.

Two years earlier, Texas lawmakers had changed the education code to prohibit using state funds to educate illegal immigrants. Some districts banned the students outright; others charged tuition.

Risking deportation, the Lopez family joined three others to fight Texas law. This week marks 25 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in their favor.

The landmark Plyler vs. Doe decision guaranteed illegal immigrants a free public education and established their civil rights and equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.

The case is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Brown vs. Board of Education, but it enjoys none of the same fame. It is absent from Texas history lessons. People in Tyler rarely speak of it.

Yet the Plyler case has been used as a defense against countless proposals aiming to deny rights to illegal immigrants.

It was among the reasons that a federal judge threw out California's Proposition 187, which voters approved in 1994 to prohibit public services, including education, for illegal immigrants.

It explains why bills introduced in the Texas Legislature to ban illegal immigrants from public schools never go anywhere.

Attorneys with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund even cited the case this year in contesting the controversial Farmers Branch ordinance to ban illegal immigrants from renting apartments in the city.

"It's a moral guide," former Tyler civil rights attorney Larry Daves said. "It says this country still stands for having an open door to children and creating opportunities. That we're going to be true to that longstanding notion in this country that education is the great equalizer."