undocumented immigrant's removal from school causes furor in N.M. town

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> <http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0304roswell-immig0304-ON.html?source=nletter-%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute1%%>http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0304roswell-immig0304-ON.html?source=nletter-%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute1%%
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> Illegal immigrant's removal from school causes furor in N.M. town
>
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> Associated Press
> Mar. 4, 2008 12:48 PM
>
> ROSWELL, N.M. - Karina Acosta's senior year at Roswell High came to 
> an abrupt end after she was ticketed for blocking a fire lane 
> outside a school and driving without a license.
>
> The officer who stopped her - a Roswell policeman assigned to the 
> school - asked her for proof of legal U.S. residency. Acosta, an 
> illegal immigrant, had none. The officer telephoned immigration 
> authorities, and Acosta, 18 and pregnant, was sent back 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.
>
> "The school was considered a place you could come and not have to 
> worry," said Coreta Justus, a teacher at 1,300-student Roswell High. 
> She added: "My job is to educate whoever walks in my classroom."
>
> Complaining of racism and unfair treatment, students demonstrated on 
> Main Street and drew adult counter-protesters. Irate parents 
> confronted school officials. The police officer was taken off the 
> school beat, and the program that put him on the high school campus 
> was suspended. At least one teacher reported a few students stayed 
> away for weeks after the incident, afraid they would meet the same 
> fate as Acosta.
>
> Three months later, Acosta's case is still dividing people in 
> Roswell, a town 200 miles north of the Mexican border that has built 
> a tourism industry around a rumored UFO crash in 1947 that was 
> supposedly covered up by the government. Roswell, population 45,000, 
> is at least 44 percent Hispanic.
>
> Officer Charlie Corn reported that he spotted Acosta blocking a fire 
> lane in late November while she was dropping off a youngster at a 
> middle school. Corn, who was on traffic duty at the school, followed 
> Acosta to the high school nearby, discovered she had no license and 
> ticketed her.
>
> He 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.
>
> A 1982 Supreme Court ruling guarantees children who are in the U.S. 
> illegally the right to a public education, and says schools cannot 
> inquire about their immigration status. Federal authorities have a 
> policy of not enforcing immigration laws on school grounds.
>
> But the question of whether police may do so is murkier.
>
> Marisol Perez of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational 
> Fund said Corn's actions were "certainly questionable and 
> problematic." She said the case was "just as egregious" as that of 
> three students who were arrested at an Albuquerque high school in 
> 2004 on immigration charges. The students sued the police, who later settled.
>
> 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.
>
> And it is occurring "in the very place where they have the greatest 
> chance at getting the skills they need to participate in this 
> society that they are living in," she said.
>
> Roswell's interim police chief, Scott Douglass, defended Corn, 
> saying that the 10-year veteran was investigating a crime and that 
> officers may ask people in the course of a criminal investigation 
> about their immigration status.
>
> But the chief said that in the future, "Enforcement action like that 
> would probably be taken after school hours and off of campus."
>
> Assistant School Superintendent Mike Kakuska told parents 
> immediately after the incident that the school system didn't support 
> the officer's actions and had protested Acosta's arrest to 
> immigration authorities.
>
> The legal question aside, some of Acosta's former teachers said she 
> was wronged.
>
> 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 percent of the 
> students in the old, yellow brick high school are Hispanic, and 
> perhaps 40 percent of those are illegal.
>
> "The thing that made me angry is that schools are supposed to be 
> safe for any student, regardless of what nationality, what age they 
> may be," the teacher said.
>
> But others in Roswell resent the influx of Mexicans who are in the 
> U.S. illegally and complain the newcomers are using resources such 
> as hospital emergency rooms without paying enough in taxes.
>
> "They're here freeloading, and that's exactly the reason I think 
> they should not be allowed in the school system," said Gene Warren, 
> a retired telephone repairman.
>
> An Acosta family friend, Rosie Delgado, said that Acosta's mother, 
> who has also been living in Roswell, was terrified after the 
> incident and that the girl's two younger sisters were afraid to 
> return to school for a week or so. Delgado said family members don't 
> want to talk to reporters, and she would not disclose their whereabouts.
>
> 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."