Proposed Alabama Law To Kids At Prom: Show Me Your Papers

Imagine the hapless kid, awkward and all thumbs,  putting a corsage on his prom date’s wrist then doing a quick check of his pockets to make sure he’s got his immigration papers. That’ll take the cool out of anyone’s rent-a-tux. But it’s not that far-fetched.

No extracurriculars.

A proposed law, approved by the Alabama State Senate, will keep undocumented school kids out of all extracurricular activities – all of them. So no sports, no debate team, no student government, no ballet folklorico (supposing they have those in Alabama), no tutoring, no band…you get the picture. No prom.

The story was brought to light by Antonio Ginatta, advocacy director for the US Program at Human Rights Watch. He wrote an opinion piece for the Birmingham News.

In Section 8 of the bill (SB 256), any child who is not lawfully present in the U.S. is prohibited from participating in “any extracurricular activity outside of the basic course of study” in elementary school or high school. But the basic course of study isn’t all there is to an education.

Plyler V. Doe

Either Alabama is in a time-warp or they have no sense of precedent. We got passed this almost twenty years ago. Back then it was Texas and bill that  gave school the lee-way to keep undocumented kids out of their classrooms.

…the Supreme Court held in its Plyler v. Doe decision that all children, regardless of immigration status, had a right to go to public school. …The court held that by denying admission to these children, it would impose “a lifetime hardship on .¤.¤. children not accountable for their disabling status.” The court held that any attempt to deny schooling to undocumented children would violate the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The Alabama Senate apparently believes that since the Plyler decision only applied to K-12 education, everything that was not “education” could be snatched away from these children.

The only way to keep kids from prom and the chess club matches is to check their papers. Is this really where they want to go?

The immediate effect will be that some kids will simply not take part in activities that happen after school hours.

A chilling effect on families.

The next thing is that parents may keep their children from going to school out of fear. And the end result, according to Ginatta, is a toxic environment where suspicion would become the norm: a talented student who simply decides she doesn’t want to be in the glee club may be pegged as undocumented; or a outgoing kid would stay away from the pancake sale for fear of being deported.

In the end, a public school is no place for immigration checks.

An immigration verification policy at public schools will not only be contrary to the aims of the Plyler ruling. It will also undermine the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “everyone has the right to education.” Introducing fear or intimidation into the school-enrollment process makes the right to education illusory. Requiring proof of legal immigration status at school, in any context, will have a chilling effect on families.

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