Posted on 03/04/2008 5:03:49 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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."
If a space-child was born after the ROSWELL INCIDENT - would it be legally an American citizen ??
Think about this you lawyers..the rest of you take a break.. okay lawyers..A hot babe italian supermodel ..now we are in an extreme situation here, but I am okay with it. Anyway, She knocks on my door and says get me to the hospital to have a baby. I would get her to the hospital and walk her in and hold her hand and comfort her and when she askes me who I am I will tell her that I am her dream and her comfort while she sags and ages. Put somecream on those eyes. Holy cow. You look like a brick ...
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.
_____________________________________________
The magic word is “children”
She isnt a child...
She is an adult...and here illegally in her own as an adult now..
When she became 18 she could have gone back to Mexico and then she would not have been breaking the law...
It’s no longer her parents fault alone that she was here after she became 18, an adult and responsible for her own actions...
You and me both. Nothing makes me taste bile the way that does, and also that "we're here, get used to it" attitude.
Well, after a really lousy day, this story makes, it all
better! I say, we give the officer, a parade!!!!
Really? Then why are women making trips from country's like Korea specifically to give birth in US hospitals insuring US citizenship for their babies? All done on tourist Visas.
Don't believe me? Here is a link. Birth Tourism
Roswell used to be a nice little town. My Mom’s family has lived there since the early part of the last century, and there has always been a large hispanic but AMERICAN population there. My Dad still lives there and the crime rate has skyrocketed. I visited him last summer and it is so sad what Roswell has become. I wish he would move but my Mom is buried there so I doubt he will ever leave.
susie
Unfortunately since the early 80s schools have not been able to stop illegal alien children from registering and attending American schools. It always made me mad because as a US citizen I was required to show a birth certificate etc to register my American citizen children in public schools.
susie
“My job is to educate whoever walks in my classroom.”
>>>>Exactly, so shut up and quit trying to legislate our nations laws for us already!
Ya know these lunatics are the very types that will squeal about a broken medical system...one day she or idiot libs just like her will have their own teenaged HS kid that’ll go into labor and lose her child AND her unborn grandchild because the system is already overtaxed...(and now these loons want MANDATORY universal socialized medicine...and I mean universal in every sense of the word!)
...but like Katrina, they’ll blame sane folks for their OWN dangerous idiocy!
Liberalism is a virulent and dangerous disease.
Or at least re-visited, because I don’t think they had in mind children having children on OUR dime!
I’m against illegal immigration like everyone on FR but don’t the states have laws that require 6-16 year olds to be in school? It doesn’t say only legal resident 6 y/o’s.
State law must change or we get nowhere.
So you shouldn’t be arrested for a crime if you go to school? That’s brilliant.
Great point.
Well, sure she did. The faster they deport her, the faster she gets back across the border. Is that tactic on the CD that La Raza hands out on how to thwart U.S. efforts?
Something that I’ve given a lot of thought to...
The SCOTUS has ruled that anyone, no matter what their immigration status is (legal, illegal) has a right to a public education. What they didn’t do is rule on whos responsibility it is to pay for it...
So, here’s what I suggest... Anyone who demands public education for illegal aliens must pay for it. In full. In addition to the taxes they already pay. There’s no reason that the tax payers who don’t support illegal aliens should have to pay for them to be educated.
For example, lets say that there are 5,000 illegal alien students in the public schools in that city. And lets say that the cost to educate them is around $8,500 a year. The illegal alien advocates would only need to come up with $42,500,00.00. Of course, with the possibility of being hit with a bill, I would imagine that there would be fewer advocates... Maybe they could hold a bake sale. Or beg the foreign countries of which these illegal aliens are nationals for the funds. Yes, I’m sure that they countries will be happy to pay...
Mark
US corporations out-source their jobs, in order to save money.
Mexico and other central and south American countries outsource their poverty - To the US... In order to save money.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... If you want to hear screams of racism, all we would have to do is set the same immigration laws that Mexico has enacted. Of course, we wouldn't have to be as brutal... We wouldn't want to rob, rape, beat, and murder the illegal aliens, as is common when they're apprehended by Mexican officials. We'd just give them a sack lunch and then deport them.
Mark
I hear ya and AGREE!
I thought Roswell was *famous* for its aliens.
Cheers!
She’s illegal. Too bad.
At least there’s one less anchor baby.
I wonder why she got pregnant?
Didn't break a law? If they're here illegally, they broke several.
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