Mandatory Headcount: In a controversial effort to drive out illegal immigrants of the county, Alabama has introduced what is said to be the harshest anti-immigration legislation in the nation. Not only does it entitle police officers to stop and check the immigration statues of all immigrants, it also requires public schools to determine the immigration status of their students. However, officials have made sure that no student will suffer as a consequence of this political crossfire. This law states that all schools need to report the number of immigrant students they have enrolled in their school to the state officials.
However, this will not be all that different from barring children from going to school. Though officials feel that asking a student to reveal whether their parents are undocumented immigrants or not is not the same as barring them from coming to school, the residents think differently. Parents would rather pull their children out of school than reveal their immigrant status of being documented or undocumented which could ultimately lead to their arrest. This, they say, is a polite way of barring immigrant’s children from attending school as against directly keeping students away from attending classes, which is clearly illegal.
Cover Up Efforts: While some feel that this law is a much needed step to drive out illegal immigrants from the region, others are left wondering as to how barring innocent children from school will serve this purpose. However, Tommy Bice of the Alabama Department of education has stated that parents who enroll their children into school after September 1st , but do not have the birth certificate of their children can obtain this and other documents to prove their child’s immigrant status. This will not pose a problem in the enrolling of a child to school.
Such a harsh move in introducing this law seems weird as this region accounts for only 2 per cent of illegal immigration among the entire population of Alabama. However, this is said to be a warning to other countries as well that illegal immigration is a huge concern today and is growing worldwide and countries should take appropriate measures to address this issue.
Political Turncoat: Officials of the state have confirmed saying that the new law was not intended, in any way, to keep immigrant children from going to school. The law only requires that public schools report to the state officials, the number of illegal immigrant children they have in their school.