July 30, 1999
By Chelsea J. Carter
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ANAHEIM - A proposal to bill Mexico to recoup millions of dollars spent educating illegal immigrants in an Orange County school district has touched off a community dispute.
It didn't take long for accusations of hidden agendas and discrimination to surface after school board president Harald G. Martin came up with the plan for the Anaheim Unified High School District.
Caught in the middle are the district's 30,000 students who could be the first in the nation to be counted by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents looking for illegal immigrants.
If successful, educators say the proposal could inspire a national trend of districts trying to recover the costs of educating those students.
The INS estimates 2 million of the nation's 3.9 million illegal immigrants live in California. Although there are no statistics on the number of those attending public schools, officials estimate that up to one in six are illegal immigrants.
The Anaheim debate began after a federal judge ruled that Proposition 187, which excluded illegal immigrants from public schools and other services, violated the federal government's exclusive authority to regulate immigration.
In May, Martin introduced a proposal to bill Mexico $50 million in back payments and $10 million every year thereafter, arguing that thousands of illegal immigrant children from Mexico were being taught in Anaheim.
``This is purely an economic issue. This is about what it costs the American taxpayer to educate illegal aliens,'' Martin explained.
The proposal drew the immediate ire of the heavily Hispanic community.
``If this was about money, why not consider a bond issue? That's what other school districts do,'' said Amen David of Los Amigos of Orange County, which promotes equality for Hispanics. ``What they are considering is anti-immigrant.''
``What do you call it when somebody singles out a group of people? I call it racist,'' added opponent Josie Montoya.
A revamped proposal to be released this week seeks to require the INS to count the number of illegal students and force the federal government to hold other countries responsible for the cost of educating certain students.
Another possibility is a class-action lawsuit by students or their parents alleging the government violated students' civil rights and misused tax money by forcing taxpayers to pay to educate illegal immigrants, said board member Alexandra Coronado.
Meanwhile, opponents have filed 34 lawsuits against Martin, alleging violations of their civil rights and misuse of tax dollars in pursuit of the proposal. They have promised to file another suit if the proposal is approved by the board.
``They have a hidden agenda - bringing immigration agents into the school. That's harassment of the students and their parents, pure and simple,'' Mrs. Montoya said. ``We're going to keep filing the lawsuits to make a point: You can't do this.''
School officials stress the INS count would not single out students for deportation.
``Our priority is about deterring illegal entrance at the border, identifying criminal aliens,'' said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the INS Western Regional District. ``It's not about pointing the finger at schoolchildren and it won't be.''
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