Alabama's immigration laws, recently upheld by a federal judge, are a nightmare. We've already seen the impact, as the NYT has described in an editorial rightly titled "Alabama's Shame."
Volunteers on an immigrant-rights group’s hot line said that since then they have received more than 1,000 calls from pregnant women afraid to go to the hospital, crime victims afraid to go the police, parents afraid to send their children to school.
School superintendents and principals across the state confirm that attendance of Hispanic children has dropped noticeably since the word went out that school officials are now required to check the immigration status of newly enrolled students and their parents.
I know many of you are already aware of this, and that the news is a few days old. I've been thinking about how this law will effect something that I focus on, which is the matter of American national unity. In my writing I argue that strengthening the bonds--in particular bonds across ethnic lines--of Americans is one of the most powerful things we progressives can do both to make our country stronger and also a more equal and just place. These goals, of course, go hand in hand.
Reading about the exodus of Hispanic children from Alabama public schools got me angry, but then got me thinking.
Public schools can and should play a fundamental role in integrating immigrant children into American society and strengthening their sense of American national identity. As these kids express their identification with America, more other Americans will hopefully (and I am optimistic about this) continue to recognize them as full members of the American community.
Thus, by making immigrant parents afraid to send their children to school—something that has a direct, negative impact on those kids’ lives as well as the communities that subsequently have large numbers of uneducated young people—the Alabama law also stands diametrically opposed to the push that Obama has made (something I have written about elsewhere) to invigorate national unity.
There are many more facets on this topic to explore than I can do in a brief diary, and I encourage you all to do so in the discussion.