Speech #1040191105

Mr. Chairman. the list goes on and on. but the dollars and cents are only part of the story. Equally important is the fact that illegal immigrants in our classrooms are having an extremely detrimental effect on the quality of education we are able to provide to the legal residents. When illegal immigrants sit down in public school classrooms. the desk. textbooks. blackboards in effect become stolen property. stolen from the students rightfully entitled to those resources. I want to be very clear here. This amendment does not apply to the children of illegal immigrants who were born in this country and instantly became citizens under the 14th amendment to our Constitution. My amendment applies only to those who have themselves illegally entered this country or who have entered legally and then remained beyond the valid terms of their visa. In its 1982 decision in the case of Plyler versus Doe. the Supreme Court ruled by 5 to 4 that States were required to provide a free education to all students. regardless of their legal status under the equal protection clause to the Constitution. Many of my friends who oppose this amendment will invoke this constitutional mandate as justification for their opposition. But something that the defenders of the status quo ignore is that in the 1982 decision the court also ruled that Congress had failed to do its job. In the courts majority opinion. Justice William Brennan said Congress shared some responsibility for Illegal Immigrants occupying public schools. He wrote: Faced with an equal protection challenge respecting the treatment of aliens. we agree that the courts must be attentive to the congressional policy. The exercise of congressional power might well affect the States prerogatives to afford differential treatment to a particular class of alien. Today the House takes up Justice Brennan on this invitation and exercises that power. Some will argue that we have a responsibility to educate illegal immigrants simply by virtue of the fact that they have successfully broken into our country. My feeling is that an act of geography is not the same as an act of Jurisprudence. Just because someone has busted through the front door. that does not entitle them to the contents of your home. The promise of free education is only one of the magnets we hold up to those who would break our laws by violating our borders. It is clear to me that any solution to our immigration crisis must include an elimination of such incentives. Allowing our States to make their own decision on this education serves this purpose. Mr.