If Trump is really serious about "mass deportations," will they come after the school children?

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Since 1982, Plyler v. Doe has prohibited a state from denying an education to immigrant children on the basis of status (or lack thereof). It was Texas that tried this before. This ruling was written by William Brennan, there is no one on SCOTUS anywhere near as liberal as Brennan, and certainly not 5 of them. It is on the basis of Plyler that schools don't ask for SSNs for the kids, don't inquire into legal status. But the case really doesn't say that they can't do any of that, it held that equal protection rights were violated by denying immigrant children situated in the state an education.

If you really want to find people who are here illegally, one of the first places to start is the schools. Is Plyler ripe to fall given the current SCOTUS? Trump is "immune" anyway, could he not just ignore it and use whatever litigation ensues to bring the issue back up to the Court? Even if it doesn't fall, I don't see that it prohibits using their records and resources to suss out undocumented kids or parents.

Can you really imagine that? Requiring principals and teachers to report who is undocumented? BP going through their records looking for undocumented kids and/or parents?

A part of me thinks that businesses would be shrieking loudly about the loss of cheap labor if it got to this point. But an unrestrained Trump, a zealot as "border czar" promising deportations, and a court system mostly willing to go along with his stupid crap (you can bet they'd file any cases in Amarillo --> Fifth Circuit --> SCOTUS, all of which would be horrible for the rule of law or caring at all about these people), and the possibilities are frightening.

Posted Nov 12, 2024, 8:09 PM UTC

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