California School cracks down on illegals

Residents in Calexico, California are cracking down on students illegally entering the U.S. to attend the city's local schools according to a recent AP report. Classroom overcrowding caused by students crossing the border from neighboring Mexicali, Mexico has become so pronounced that legal residents of the district have had to resort to bussing their children away from local schools to remote locations across town.

While school district administrators cannot address a student's immigration status it can enforce rules requiring residency in local districts. Enter Daniel Santillan, an unlikely hero in the fight against illegals crowding into U.S. classrooms from Mexico. Santillan a Vietnam War veteran who posts the likenesses of Cesar Chavez and Che Guevara in his ranch-style home makes the trek to the U.S./Mexican border in his SUV to photograph Mexican students as they exit the U.S. inspection building and head for class in Calexico's schools on the U.S. side of the border. The residences of students whom officials suspect are living in Mexico are verified by early morning calls to the addresses provided by the families. Students who are found reside in Mexico are kicked out of the district's schools.

The enforcement program began when residents of Calexico were told they would have to bus their children to alleviate overcrowding in the city's schools even though voters had approved a 30 million dollar construction project to provide for more classrooms for the city's burgeoning student population back in 2004. Voters demanded that something be done to solve the problem of classroom overcrowding by illegals.

Call me a "nativist" but I'd say it's a step in the right direction and I'll wear the "nativist" banner proudly. Americans are by and large good-natured, hard-working, charitable people. But even the most forbearing of those who pay their taxes, make many personal sacrifices and approve bond measures so their children can receive an education, get to the point where they've had enough of unconscionable individuals who take the short route and send their kids into a neighboring country to sponge off the generosity of others to get the benefits of a U.S. education at the expense of their neighbors just over the border.

The full article can be viewed here.