As school districts begin enrolling for the next school year, a letter from the U.S. Department of Education was sent out to remind school districts that denying elementary or secondary education to any student is federally prohibited. In response to recent reports of school districts rejecting students based on citizenship, the letter was meant to reinforce the federal guidelines of education as decided in the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe.

The decision of Plyer v. Doe upholds the inability of any state to deny public education to students whether they are a citizen of the United States or not. Denying education to illegal immigrants was seen as imposing a hardship on minors who were not accountable for the immigration decisions of their parents. Despite the actions of several American school districts participating in education discrimination this has been the law since 1982.

Read the rest of this entry »

The DREAM Act may become a reality for hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants. If it passes completely, it will give legal residency to children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents and that have lived here for at least five years.

The DREAM Act, or The DREAM Act Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, was passed by the House Wednesday evening. Though half the battle may be won, the bill still has to be passed by the Senate. The Senate voted on the act last September, and it failed to get the required 60 votes.

Republican voters may not let it pass. Some conservative critics are calling the act a “backdoor grant of amnesty that would encourage more foreigners to sneak into the United States in hopes of being legalized eventually.”

Read the rest of this entry »