Educators File Amicus in Alabama Case

Mary Ann Zehr writes for Education Week:

An advocacy group for English-language learners has filed a “friend of the court” brief backing a class action that challenges Alabama’s new law requiring educators to record the immigration status of students in schools. The Somerville, Mass.-based Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy, Inc., has filed the brief on its own behalf as well as for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Hispanic College Fund, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

The new Alabama law, believed to be the first of its kind signed by a state governor, requires educators to report to Alabama’s board of education whether students are undocumented or not. The law, known informally as H.B. 56, also requires police officers to make “a reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of any person while making a “lawful stop, detention, or arrest.” . . .

The friend of the court brief asks a federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Northeastern Division, to block the law or declare it unconstitutional. It states that the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, gave children the right to a free education in this country regardless of their immigration status. Read more…

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