We Are Our Own Worse Enemy

Illegal Immigrants Strain Many School Districts

February 3, 2015 Eagle Forum  

While New York launches a review of procedures used to enroll illegal immigrant students, Washington, D.C. is straining under the tremendous burden of educating such students. The influx of over 50,000 children and young adults across the nation’s southern border is taxing school budgets across the nation. These students were unexpected and not included in schools’ fiscal plans. Most need specialized English Language Learner programs and are usually on free or reduced lunch programs, furthering schools’ financial challenges.

N.Y. Enrollment Policy Investigated

The 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision guaranteed a public education for undocumented children. The New York Dept. of Education and attorney general’s office have launched an investigation “to determine whether districts violated federal law when delaying enrollment of students.” But Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester County schools say some illegal alien children haven’t been admitted to schools because the adults attempting to enroll them have been unable to provide the required documents that prove student residency or to show that they have the guardianship necessary to enroll students. (Proof of guardianship is a safety measure to protect children from being enrolled by those who do not have legal custody.) There are more than 3,000 unaccompanied minors who came to the four counties in 2014, either because they had relatives there or because agencies found sponsors for them. (New York Times, 10-22-14)

D.C. Faces $ Burden

Watchdog.org used 2012 data based on 4,065 illegal immigrants in Washington, D.C. to estimate that it would cost $86 million to educate illegal immigrants that year. Their data was provided by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project and was determined using the per student annual cost of $21,347.

But due to the recent influx of children, it will now cost closer to $186 million each year to educate illegal immigrants in D.C, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). There are now many more undocumented students in the district and using the simple multiplication method doesn’t account for the additional expense incurred through English Language Learner programs and the use of programs that feed impoverished students at school.

Who is Crossing?

As of the end of June, Customs and Border Patrol had already apprehended 57,525 unaccompanied children in the first nine months of the fiscal year. “That includes 49,933 from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.” (FactCheck.org, 7-18-14) Some children from Mexico may be immediately deported but those from Central America are often offered permanent refuge.

Those who would illegally cross borders have been encouraged to attempt it because talk of amnesty measures has increased at a time when economic conditions have worsened and crime has increased in Central America and Mexico.

In June, CNS News reported, “Instead of discouraging the wave of illegal child immigrants headed toward the U.S. border, major media outlets in Central America are encouraging the phenomenon in recent news coverage.” CNS listed specific news outlets in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras that promoted crossing the border illegally.

Although the American media has indicated it is young children coming across the border, among the initial 1,000 Central American minors housed at Lackland Air Force base in Texas, “about 80% of the minors housed at the base are male and 83% are over age 14.” (CSNnews.com, 6-18-14) There are also reports that some crossers have a gang affiliation and have committed crimes.

Mainstream media outlets say that mostly “children” are crossing the border. But a review of actual figures show that the greatest number of crossers, by far, are teens, although the percentage of younger children crossing has increased at a higher rate in the past year. According to figures obtained using a Freedom of Information Act request:

In fiscal year 2013, nine-in-ten minors apprehended at the border were teens.

This share has dropped as the number of younger children making the dangerous trip has risen dramatically: [Yet] in the first eight months of fiscal year 2014, 84% were teens. (PewResearch.org, 7-22-14)

National Implications

It has been determined that the Obama administration expected the influx and government officials have admitted this. In January of 2014, Homeland Security and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office issued a solicitation at FedBizOpps.gov, a website that advertises government contract openings, for private contractors to provide transportation and escorts for an estimated 65,000 immigrant children from the U.S.-Mexico border to relocation facilities throughout the United States. Part of the advertisement read:

Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC  [Unaccompanied Alien Children] from Dept. of Homeland Security to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff. . . .(TheBlaze.com, 6-20-14; FactCheck.org, 7-18-14)

There has been an unprecedented attempt to spread the illegal immigrants throughout the U.S. Even small, rural towns have received UACs. The influx of school-aged teens and children impacts schools in unexpected places. “Nationally, FAIR estimates that it costs about $52 billion to educate children who are in the U.S. illegally.” (HumanEvents.com, 12-3-14)

The expense of this influx is not limited to schools. Additional costs include transporting the UACs from the border to communities and social services provided to those who eventually sponsor them.

Why Not a Fence Instead?

In July, President Obama requested that Congress provide an emergency fund of $3.7 billion dollars to resettle the newest illegal aliens in the U.S. Dividing $3.7 billion by the estimated 50,000 border crossers who will be allowed to stay equals almost $74,000 per individual illegal alien. None of this money is destined for schools.

Progressives consider $74,000 per crosser in one year a reasonable expenditure but balk at increased border control and building a fence that would permanently take care of the problem. Illegal border crossings cost American taxpayers by lowering the quality of the education children receive; by taking American jobs; and by diminishing the security of the nation. Yet, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and others who support building a fence are maligned by those who fail to understand the cost of illegal immigration and the potential for terrorists to infiltrate along with unaccompanied juveniles.