Safe Schools for Undocumented Students
Despite the federal government’s increasingly aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, some New Mexico districts have struck deals with law enforcement agencies in their communities to provide “safe schools” for undocumented students.
Not only are school personnel in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M. barred from putting information about a child’s immigration status in school records or sharing it with federal immigration authorities, they have been told to deny any request from immigration officials to enter a school to search for information or seize students. Instead school officials would get advice from their lawyers before deciding whether to grant access.
The Albuquerque, N.M., police department itself agreed to a new policy barring officers from “stopping, questioning, detaining, investigating, or arresting minor children (under 18 years old) on any immigration-related matter while on or immediately in the vicinity of public school grounds or property.” This new stance follows a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 2005, police detained three students on the campus of their school and called in Border Patrol agents who did not follow procedure and get prior approval from a supervisor before taking any enforcement action on school grounds. The revamped policy represents a settlement between the Albuquerque Police Department and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the school district and the Albuquerque Police Department for violating the student’s rights. The new policy also prohibits police officers from assisting others in detaining or questioning students on immigration-related matters.
The 12,000-student Santa Fe school system adopted a policy similar to Albuquerque’s after a March 22 incident in which ICE agents arrested an undocumented man in a school parking lot when he came to pick up his daughter.
— Teachers of Color
|
|
