Think the massive influx of illegal immigrant children is going to have a negative impact only in border states? Think again.
With multiple sites being considered for relocation of these children, including across my state of New York, one lawmaker is warning that the 60,000-plus illegal immigrant children will be placed in public schools across the country. Meaning these kids will be getting an education paid for by you – the taxpayer.
Via the National Review:
Taxpayers may foot the bill for the education of the illegal-immigrant children flooding across the border when school resumes this fall.
“American taxpayers are being forced to pay the huge cost of providing schooling to every illegal immigrant under 18 (and many 18+) who is dropped inside the U.S.,” a GOP aide with knowledge of the situation e-mails National Review Online. “This is just a tiny slice of the bill taxpayers are being asked to absorb that we’re supposedly forbidden from discussing in polite company.”
A joint letter issued by the Departments of Justice and Education in May reminded school officials of their obligations to provide equal educational opportunities under the law. It also provided a subtle reminder that immigration status is not considered a relevant facet of determining a child’s residency status.
To comply with these Federal civil rights laws, as well as the mandates of the Supreme Court, you must ensure that you do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and that students are not barred from enrolling in public schools at the elementary and secondary level on the basis of their own citizenship or immigration status or that of their parents or guardians.
[…]
While a district may restrict attendance to district residents, inquiring into students’ citizenship or immigration status, or that of their parents or guardians would not be relevant to establishing residency within the district.
To be clear, this letter makes a case that a child or his parent may be in the country illegally, but that doesn’t mean he’s in the school district illegally.
The GOP aide also told the National Review:
Parents who can afford [it] may send their kids to private school — while their taxes fund free education for illegal immigrants [who are obviously being given a free pass to stay]. These Americans’ own children’s education then suffers as a result of the impact on school resources.
According to a former Border Patrol Agent Leader, once these children are in the school systems, they will not be returned home.
They are scattering them throughout the population of the United States in various states and putting the local school systems and people on notice that these kids will be attending school in August and September, which by the way is more than 30 days away. They know they’re going to be here. One they’re embedded in the population of the United States, the likelihood that they’ll be removed is somewhere between minus one and zero.
It is, as the President has said, a humanitarian crisis. But as Senator Ted Cruz explains, it is “a crisis of his own creation.”
Taxpayers in New York will be paying through the nose for that crisis come September.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
