Justice Department Says Alabama Immigration Law Hurting Hispanic Students

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/05/04/justice-department-says-alabama-immigration-law-hurting-hispanic-students/?grcc=grdt

The Justice Department may currently be engaged in a fight with Arizona over immigration policy – which recently went before the Supreme Court – but it’s not exactly giving other states a pass while the country waits to hear what the court has to say on that matter.

The Alabama law includes a provision that requires police making lawful traffic stops or arrests to try to determine the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. As Law Blog noted, parts of the law were blocked by a federal appeals court.

Among the blocked provisions was a requirement that Alabama officials check the immigration status of public school children, but Perez points to data that he says shows the law has had negative effect, including absence rates that have tripled among Hispanic students, CNN noted.

In his letter, Perez points to the Supreme Court’s decision in Plyler v. Doe (1982), which said that a state may not deny a child equal access to public education based on his or her immigration status.