Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

LAREDO, Oct. 6 - The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid have spoken out about the possibility of some students being excluded from border schools.

The two non-profit groups strongly disagree with moves by schools such as San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District in Del Rio and United Independent School District in Laredo to quiz students on their citizenship status.

In Del Rio, parents were stopped at the border and given a letter informing them that their children were being withdrawn from school because the school district assumed those children did not live within the district’s boundaries.

MALDEF attorney David Hinojosa told the Guardian that both his group and TRLA have extended their hands to help San Felipe ensure that the rights of their students and parents are protected.

“MALDEF is quite shocked that in this day and age, school districts would even attempt to keep students out of schools that they have every right to be in,” said Hinojosa. “They should concentrate on educating students rather than keeping students from being educated.”

MALDEF and TRLA are concerned that some schools in the Rio Grande Valley may follow a similar path as the Del Rio school.

MALDEF and TRLA have issued a statement on the rights of parents and guardians to enroll their children in Texas public schools. Click here to read the statement.

For many years, residency requirements to attend U.S. public schools have been overlooked by those living outside the school districts.

In border communities, this includes people living in northern Mexico who legally cross the border everyday to take their children to school.

Last month, Kelt Cooper, superintendent of the San Felipe Del Rio CISD received word that about 400 school-age children were crossing the bridge everyday to attend schools but had no student visas.

He instructed district officials to warn students that they could face expulsion if they don’t prove they live in the district. His decision has caused a barrage of complaints from civil rights groups as well as support from anti-immigrant groups.

“We have a law. We have a policy. We follow it,” Cooper was quoted in the Del Rio News Herald as saying. “I'm just doing my job.”

Under state law, a student must reside in the district where they attend public school. Parents stopped at the border must now provide a current U.S. address with a utility bill or other documentation to prove they live in the district.

“This has been going on for years, we all knew it,” said Estella Esquivel, whose children attend schools in Del Rio, said about the policy. “You cover your eyes and don't say anything, and that's just the way it is,” she told the Del Rio News-Herald.

In many cases immigration status is not an issue, as an old Supreme Court ruling prevents school officials from asking about citizenship. Instead, Texas law requires students to live in the district of the public school they attend. Turning away students cost the districts money. Private schools function differently because they do not receive state funds.

Many disagree with the actions being taken by the school district saying that all students have a right to get an education, pointing out the requirement that is primarily used in public schools is residency, not citizenship.

Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Cooper's bridge stakeout prevented parents from taking advantage of a "duty-free education."

“It's very obvious the parents are cheating the system. The kids are getting quality education without contributing,” he said.

In Laredo, the board of trustees at United ISD has talked about enforcing the residency law in their schools.

UISD will be taking severe action, involving both criminal and civil penalties against people who falsify enrollment documents, said Juan Cruz, UISD attorney, told the Laredo Morning Times.

“I can understand (the taxpayers’) frustration that we’re educating kids from across,” said UISD Board President Pat Campos, told the newspaper. “Whether we like it or not, it happens. We are going to take measures to make sure that our students attending our schools are properly within our boundaries and reside in the district,” she said.

Cruz and Campos said UISD would probably not go as far as Del Rio public school district did. “We wouldn’t go to that extreme,” Campos told LMT.

Hinojosa said MALDEF and TRLA are working to inform parents, students and educators of the legal rights of students attending public schools in Texas and the state and local requirements that school districts must adhere to governing student enrollment.
 
Hinojosa said San Felipe school officials had ignored bi-national community ties between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña. He said reports indicate that SFDR may not have removed students from school but allegedly did continue to ask parents for additional documentation proving residency within the district, documents that were above and beyond the district’s own policy. 

Hinojosa pointed out that in 1982, MALDEF won a historic victory in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe. Hinojosa said the Plyler decision held that undocumented children who live in the U.S. have a constitutional right to attend schools here in the U.S.  School districts that attempt to circumvent the Plyler ruling by targeting certain students with “admission” policies that violate state enrollment residency laws or the spirit of Plyler may also be violating the U.S. Constitution.