Speech #980227841

Mr. President. today I am introducing the Emergency Immigrant Education Act of 1984. This bill seeks to provide some Federal relief for school districts which bear the additional costs associated with providing public education for disproportionately large numbers of alien children. many of whom are in the United States illegally. Due to the failure of present Federal immigration policies. there has been a dramatic increase in the influx of illegal aliens that is testing the ability of schools to respond. Estimates prepared by the Bureau of the Census indicate that. conservatively speaking. about 2 million illegal aliens were counted in the 1980 census. Of these. nearly half were born in Mexico. which for the last 20 years has been the country from which most immigrants enter the United States. Of the illegal aliens present in the United States in 1980. approximately 44 percent or 900.000. arrived between 1975 to 1980. almost double the number who entered during the 1960s and early 1970s. With respect to Mexican immigrants. 51.2 percent who were in the United States illegally in 1980 entered between 1975 to 1980 and amounted to 476.000 individuals. a total which exceeds the legal Mexican immigrant population by 60 percent. Since Mexican nationals represent almost half of all the illegal aliens counted in 1980. and large numbers cross into the United State on foot and by automobile. it stands to reason that States along the northernmost border of Mexico are the first to experience the impact of immigration on community services. Among the community services most directly affected by the increase in alien traffic is education. because according to Bureau estimates. Mexicanborn illegal aliens tend to be relatively youngwith 22 percent under the age of 15 and another 64 percent between the ages of 15 and 34. the prime childbearing years. As a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyer against DOE (1982). States cannot refuse to provide children free education on the basis of their immigrant status. This prohibition has resulted in great financial strain for States and local school districts most heavily impacted by rising numbers of immigrants. According to estimates provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Texas schools have experienced a significant rise in the percentage of minority enrollment. There are no reliable data on the number of immigrant children enrolled in our Nations schools. As a proxy however. it is useful to review the dramatic increase in the number of minority students. In 1972. minority children comprised 38 percent of the total enrollment.