Politico: Over a month after the nation's toughest immigration law took effect in Alabama, hundreds of Hispanic students are still missing from the state's public school system and they are likely gone for good.
On Monday, a whopping 1,807 Hispanics in the state didn't show up to school, according to the number of student absences provided to POLITICO by the Alabama Department of Education. This is about 800 more than what was considered a normal absentee count among Hispanic youth before parts of the state's immigration law were approved at the end of September. On Tuesday, the number was 1,540.
The department's spokeswoman, Malissa Valdes, said the absentee figure for Hispanic students has continued to hover hundreds higher than the pre-immigration law average following an initial spike of absentees after the law kicked in.
"If a student comes to school and they fill out a form of withdrawal, they are officially withdrawn, and the school would not mark them as absent. But if the student stops showing up, we will never know and they will continue to be marked as absent [until the end of the school year]," Valdes said.
She added, "Administrators expressed that [some] Hispanic students left giving the reason that their parents have decided to move. You could assume that would have some impact on the permanent loss of any students."
U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn upheld parts of what is considered the toughest immigration law in the country in September. The provisions included those that required schools to verify students' immigration status and allowed officers to determine the citizenship or status or those who have been stopped, detained or arrested.
In October, the Obama administration filed a challenge to the immigration law, asking an appeals court to block its enforcement. On Oct. 14, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta stayed some of the laws controversial provisions.
On Monday, a whopping 1,807 Hispanics in the state didn't show up to school, according to the number of student absences provided to POLITICO by the Alabama Department of Education. This is about 800 more than what was considered a normal absentee count among Hispanic youth before parts of the state's immigration law were approved at the end of September. On Tuesday, the number was 1,540.
The department's spokeswoman, Malissa Valdes, said the absentee figure for Hispanic students has continued to hover hundreds higher than the pre-immigration law average following an initial spike of absentees after the law kicked in.
"If a student comes to school and they fill out a form of withdrawal, they are officially withdrawn, and the school would not mark them as absent. But if the student stops showing up, we will never know and they will continue to be marked as absent [until the end of the school year]," Valdes said.
She added, "Administrators expressed that [some] Hispanic students left giving the reason that their parents have decided to move. You could assume that would have some impact on the permanent loss of any students."
U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn upheld parts of what is considered the toughest immigration law in the country in September. The provisions included those that required schools to verify students' immigration status and allowed officers to determine the citizenship or status or those who have been stopped, detained or arrested.
In October, the Obama administration filed a challenge to the immigration law, asking an appeals court to block its enforcement. On Oct. 14, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta stayed some of the laws controversial provisions.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week about how Hispanics might be adversely effected by the immigration law, told POLITICO that the law was virtually impossible to enforce without profiling certain ethnic groups.
"Those who are here legally, including citizens, will end up having to show identification if they are Hispanic by appearance -- wherever they go," he said. "When two people are stopped for speeding and theyve forgotten their drivers licenses, the Hispanic person can go to jail while the white person will show up in court and show their drivers license."
Taylor Baronich, a community organizer at the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, a non-profit that provides legal services and other outreach to the Hispanic community, said the continued absences among the Hispanic student population seem consistent with what she has heard from parents.
"Families just started leaving the state completely. I have a feeling that is why [the absences] have plateaued the consistent [absentee numbers] are because parents have either left or are planning to leave [the state], so theyve taken their kids out of school," Baronich said.
Even though the appeals court ruling pulled back some of the law's most controversial provisions, including those that forced schools to check students' papers and mandated immigrants to carry documents at all times, Baronich said it has not been enough to roll back the fear that have permeated the Hispanic community.
"There's anxieties that go with the law which are still not resolved," she said. "[One mother] said she felt like she couldn't be an adequate parent because she couldn't drive her kids to soccer or ballet, because a part of the law that is still in place requires that if you drive without a license, you can be detained, instead of just getting a ticket."
Still, a few hundred absences in a state that has an estimated 35,000 Hispanic students is relatively small -- certainly far less noticeable than the thousands of Hispanic students that didn't show up in school at the end of September, and education officials in some counties say they have hardly noticed any lingering effects.
"I do understand a lot of communities have seen big changes we just have not been one of them," said Philip Baker, the Tallapoosa County Board of Educations superintendent. "Here, I just feel really good about our administrators, who are doing a great job of trying to communicate with kids and parents to put their minds at ease."
Some conservative members of Congress said they don't care about the high Hispanic absentee rate, as long the number of illegal immigrants in the state continues to drop.
"Illegal aliens are continuing to leave Alabama not as fast as we would want, not as many as we would want but still they're leaving and it makes us happy," Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told POLITICO.
Asked about the hundreds of Hispanic students that seem to have fled the state, Brooks said he was not bothered by those figures.
"That doesn't make any difference to me. What matters is whether illegal aliens are consuming our scarce education tax dollars," he said. "Parents who are in the United States illegally have an obligation to take care of their kids as they feel best and I defer it to their judgment on how best to take care of their children."
Taylor Baronich, a community organizer at the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, a non-profit that provides legal services and other outreach to the Hispanic community, said the continued absences among the Hispanic student population seem consistent with what she has heard from parents.
"Families just started leaving the state completely. I have a feeling that is why [the absences] have plateaued the consistent [absentee numbers] are because parents have either left or are planning to leave [the state], so theyve taken their kids out of school," Baronich said.
Even though the appeals court ruling pulled back some of the law's most controversial provisions, including those that forced schools to check students' papers and mandated immigrants to carry documents at all times, Baronich said it has not been enough to roll back the fear that have permeated the Hispanic community.
"There's anxieties that go with the law which are still not resolved," she said. "[One mother] said she felt like she couldn't be an adequate parent because she couldn't drive her kids to soccer or ballet, because a part of the law that is still in place requires that if you drive without a license, you can be detained, instead of just getting a ticket."
Still, a few hundred absences in a state that has an estimated 35,000 Hispanic students is relatively small -- certainly far less noticeable than the thousands of Hispanic students that didn't show up in school at the end of September, and education officials in some counties say they have hardly noticed any lingering effects.
"I do understand a lot of communities have seen big changes we just have not been one of them," said Philip Baker, the Tallapoosa County Board of Educations superintendent. "Here, I just feel really good about our administrators, who are doing a great job of trying to communicate with kids and parents to put their minds at ease."
Some conservative members of Congress said they don't care about the high Hispanic absentee rate, as long the number of illegal immigrants in the state continues to drop.
"Illegal aliens are continuing to leave Alabama not as fast as we would want, not as many as we would want but still they're leaving and it makes us happy," Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told POLITICO.
Asked about the hundreds of Hispanic students that seem to have fled the state, Brooks said he was not bothered by those figures.
"That doesn't make any difference to me. What matters is whether illegal aliens are consuming our scarce education tax dollars," he said. "Parents who are in the United States illegally have an obligation to take care of their kids as they feel best and I defer it to their judgment on how best to take care of their children."
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