The USA Today article, Roswell, N.M., split on immigrant teen is the best example of willful ignorance I’ve seen in a long time. It illustrates how some people completely miss the point of the immigration argument. It’s the sad, sad tale of an eighteen year old pregnant high school student who was brutally ripped from her family and sent home to Mexico.
The episode has caused a furor in town, with teachers and others complaining that Acosta’s treatment violated the spirit, if not the letter, of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has all but made the nation’s public schools safe havens for illegal immigrants.
  photo credit: John Parres |
The letter of the ruling obviously wasn’t violated. Authorities had every right to deport this young woman. And if the spirit of the ruling is to provide protection for lawbreakers, then Congress ought to pass a law which will challenge this SCOTUS decision because it’s an example of judicial activism at it’s worst – poorly conceived and poorly executed.
[The police officer] gave her several days to produce proof of legal residency, after which he called her into his campus office and contacted immigration authorities. They immediately took her to a juvenile detention center, and she agreed to be sent back to the Mexican state of Chihuahua rather than fight deportation.
She received due process. She wasn’t here legally and had no grounds to stay. Deportation? Si, se puede. Exactly the way her home country, Mexico, does to the people who get past it’s militarized southern border.
Jennifer Moore, who teaches international, human rights and refugee law at the University of New Mexico, said making students vulnerable to deportation at school is “making a mockery” of their right to public education.
Should Mexican, Guatemalan, and children from other countries have a right to United States taxpayer funded education?
Dolores Fresquez said her former student was well-behaved, had good grades and held down a job. Fresquez, who teaches Spanish and English as a second language, estimated that up to 90% of the students in the old, yellow brick high school are Hispanic, and perhaps 40% of those are illegal.
Her grades are irrelevant. She could be the reincarnation of Mother Theresa and it would be irrelevant. She had no right to be here. And the statistic that perhaps 40% of the students in this school are illegal is shocking.
The Rev. Juan Montoya of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church said many in his congregation live in fear of being picked up by police in Roswell.
“It’s not just about Karina. Karina is just one of many,” said Montoya, a Mexican-American. “I know people who have been picked up — didn’t break a law, they didn’t pass a stop sign, they didn’t do anything.“
They should live in fear. That’s how you’re supposed to feel when you are violating the law. As for “they didn’t do anything,” let me complete that sentence – “they didn’t do anything they were supposed to do in order to live here legally and be free from fear of deportation.” There. That’s better.
I’m not sure why this is so hard to understand… What part of illegal immigrant don’t we understand here.
I even heard a while back a forum where Hillary Clinton was asked specifically about what her plans for illegal immigrant healtcare. It was hilarious that the question was asked and even more so that she had to tactfully say that we want to provide healthcare for our citizens first. She should’ve been able to say, illegal immigrants are illegal and thus should not benefit from the goverment.
I work in a school district and its funny to see how the humanitarian in us all only perpetuates the problem as the ethnicity of the rest of the state (NJ) and soon country becomes the minority. it appears my school district is already 50+% hispanic.
Scary… and since all our candidates are basically open borders, the only thing we can did is try to influence Congress.