Except for our indigenous brothers and sisters, we in the United States are all descended from immigrants, whether voluntary or involuntary. Caught once again in an era of intolerance, how quickly we forget that welcoming the stranger has been a blessing for us all. The education of immigrant children is not only a smart investment; as an expression of the call to love our neighbors ad ourselves, it is also a moral imperative. The issues of immigration and immigration enforcement affect the children in immigrant families and the public schools that serve those children.
UCC Resource
The D.R.E.A.M. Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors
Immigration Raids and Children
UCC Resource
This year's 2010 Message on Public Education explores the politically charged issue of immigration as it affects public schools and children who are new to our country, their communities, and their schools. As primary civic institutions, public schools reproduce the strengths and also the injustices in our society. It is important for us as faithful citizens to reflect on ways we can work to make public schools more equitably serve all children. (We hope you will share with us how you used this resource.)
The D.R.E.A.M. Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors)
Every year 65,000 young people graduate from high school and have nowhere to go. Unlike other students, these graduates cannot get a job, join the military, or qualify for in state tuition. These are young men and women who were brought to the United States as undocumented children. Many of them have no recollection of any other country than the one they grew up in. These are kids who persevered, staying in school sometimes against great odds and managed to obtain a diploma. These young people include high school valedictorians, honor students, musicians, athletes, and artists.
The DREAM Act is the proposed law that, if passed, would grant these students the right to qualify for legal residency and eventual citizenship, military service, employment, and eventual in-state college tuition and college scholarships. Currently these young people have no legally established path to a bright future. A large majority of the adolescents who would be assisted by passage of the DREAM Act have lived in the United States since they were young children. They have grown up here; in many cases they have no familiarity with another country to which they could return. By providing them a path to education and employment we will all benefit.
We urge you to press your Representative and Senators to become co-sponsors of the DREAM Act by sending this letter posted on our UCC TAKEACTION site, or call your Congressperson and Senators directly.
DREAM Act Summary, March 2009, from the National Immigration Law Center, is updated with information about the bills that have been introduced in this session of Congress.
"Illegal Immigrants Spend Millions Extra on Tuition," August 9, 2009, describes the burden carried by families who cannot qualify for the services most of us take for granted because Arizona Proposition 300 denies them in-state rates for college tuition, child care, and other services. According to the reporter, "Because nonresident students pay more than the actual cost of providing their education, Arizona's colleges and universities actually profited from illegal immigrant students."
September 30, 2008... California columnist Peter Schrag bemoans a recent decision by 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, a decision that denies in-state tuition for undocumented students at California's universities and community colleges: "...in a state struggling to keep students in school and to raise their achievement, any cloud on an already uncertain future is yet another invitation to give up and drop out." Many undocumented students "were brought to this country by their parents at an early age, don't know any other country or language, were educated in this country..." "We have a huge investment in them.... At a time when millions of boomers are retiring and the nation badly needs skilled workers to replace them, slamming the door on ambitious, potentially productive people is crazy."
July 8, 2008... Los Angeles Times article explores the lives of undocumented students who have been able to complete college, despite their immigration status, but who have no real place in the world of work.
Justice and Witness Ministries 2008 Message on Public Education explores the theme of public education and the public good. Elements of two cultural narratives, the Common Good and the American Dream, are embedded into the way we understand our public life. They are also used by politicians to manipulate us and sometimes to obscure the real issues. We are influenced by the narrative beneath the surface when laws and policies are framed in the language and assumptions of these familiar stories. As we explore the relevance of these two stories to the No Child Left Behind Act, the charter school experiment in New Orleans, the June, 2007 Supreme Court decision turning away from school integration, and the DREAM Act, we will try to discern the important role of the voice of the church. Each section is followed by discussion questions.
Immigration Raids and Children
Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children, a new report from the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute, explores how workplace raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raids aimed at identifying and deporting undocumented adults, affect the children in those families and the institutions that serve those children. The report profiles three raids, in Grand Island, Nebraska; Greeley, Colorado; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In "Iowa School District Left Coping with Immigration Raid's Impact," Education Week tells the story of the spring 2008 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace raid at a meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. Public schools are always involved when a catastrophe strikes a community's children and families.
