WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday that decisions on whether to report undocumented students to authorities rest with local communities.
DeVos was asked during a congressional hearing whether teachers or principals should notify authorities that a student is undocumented.
"I think it's a school decision, a local community decision," she said.
DeVos added, "We have laws and we also are compassionate and I urge this body to do its job and address and clarify where there is confusion around this."
But Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaign at the American Civil Liberties Union, disputed that. Praeli said in a statement that a school taking such action would violate the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of education to every child.
"Let's be clear: Any school that reports a child to ICE would violate the Constitution," Praeli said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The Supreme Court has made clear that every child in America has a right to be a basic education, regardless of immigration status."
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva on Wednesday morning condemned the education secretary’s statement.
“Secretary DeVos seems almost intentionally unaware of the environment in which she operates. This is not a call she gets to make, however far above the law she imagines herself. The Supreme Court decided in Plyler v. Doe in 1982 that we don’t block children from attending K-12 public schools in this country,” Grijalva said in a news release.
“She needs to rescind her statement immediately or resign in favor of someone who understands how our education system actually works, and the constitutional protections that children in our nation have.”
