Mass. mayor: Public schools forced to enroll immigrants with ‘more wrinkles than I have’

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/29/mass-mayor-public-schools-forced-to-enroll-immigrants-with-more-wrinkles-than-i-have/



Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy

Mass. mayor: Public schools forced to enroll immigrants with ‘more wrinkles than I have’
By Travis Gettys
Friday, August 29, 2014 14:31 EDT

A Massachusetts mayor claims the public school district in her town was forced to register possibly undocumented migrants who were clearly adults but were forbidden by the federal government from verifying their ages.

Judith Flanagan Kennedy, mayor of Lynn, made the claims Wednesday to an anti-immigration group Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., saying unaccompanied minors from Guatemala had overwhelmed the city’s public health, trash collection, and education services.

“Speaking out about this, I have been called a racist,” Kennedy said. “I have been called a hater. That is not the case.”

~snip~

DOJ officials have reminded public schools they must enroll all students within the legal age limits for public education – which in Massachusetts is 3 to 21 years old — regardless of immigration status.

[merrily]

1. If you must enroll anyone between the ages of 3 and 21, what is wrong with checking age?

If she is excluding people within the mandated group, shame on her. Prosecute her for violating the law.

But, trying to figure out whether someone is within the mandated age group does not seem heinous to me. My mom had to show my birth certificate to enroll me in kindergarten.


On the other hand, an undocumented immigrant might not have proof of age handy. So, let's try to think of a reasonable solution. I don't think calling this mayor a hater is any kind of solution.

My great uncle once told me that, when he came to this country, there was free night school in the city's public schools to teach adults English, math and other things to immigrants. And, I guess that was long enough ago that helping new immigrants learn English was not a political football. Seems to me like a good use of public buildings not used for much after 6 pm?

[Kber]

3. All perfectly reasonable

The issue here, though, is that her facts may be wrong (see my post #2). So it appears that this mayor isn't trying to find a reasonable solution to a real problem.

She's making shit up to scare people and advance an anti immigrant agenda.

[merrily]

4. WAPO does make her sound awful. But, I still think free night school for people who want it,

even if they are not immigrants, was a great idea from the past. We still. in this country have illiterate adults who were born here.

I'd volunteer to teach there.

[Kber]

2. Her story may be bullshit

An anti-immigration group's Imaninary Scapegoats

Snip

But upon closer inspection, Kennedy’s tale of woe doesn’t quite add up. Those kids with wrinkles and gray hair? She admitted she hadn’t seen them herself. And the “surge” of unaccompanied minors Kennedy has felt? It predates the actual surge at the border, which has been building for a couple of years but exploded only in 2014.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which handles the placement of unaccompanied minors, says 135 unaccompanied Guatemalan children were placed this year through July 31 in Lynn, a city of 90,000 with a sizable Guatemalan population. Tallies weren’t kept for previous years, but the figures probably were a fraction of the current level — not exactly enough to cause mayhem in Lynn’s schools, which have 13,500 kids enrolled, or to swamp trash collection.

Of those Guatemalan children who have come to Lynn, the mayor acknowledged, she doesn’t know “how many are refugees, how many are illegal immigrants including unaccompanied minors, and how many arrived legally.” That’s an important distinction, because what’s going on in the city appears to have less to do with illegal immigration and the current border crisis than with long-term patterns of legal migration, which are economically beneficial.

Snip

More

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbankan-anti-immigration-groups-imaginary-scapegoats/2014/08/27/9187234e-2e2f-11e4-9b98-848790384093_story.html

[Mass]

5. Republican mayor of lynn

though I know some Dems in MA who are just as bad on this issue.

Judith Flanagan Kennedy