Immigration bill fires up opposition

A bill being called the Safe Students Act would require school principals in North Carolina to ask parents about their child's citizenship and immigration status when the child is enrolled for the first time. That information would be used only for the state's financial analysis, the bill stipulates, and not for immigration enforcement. But the idea has plenty of critics who say the requirement would run afoul of federal law and put school administrators in an adversarial role with families.

"Such a policy poses a substantial risk of chilling children's access to education by fostering the fear that enrollment may bring families to the attention of immigration authorities," said Sarah Preston, lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. But Rep. Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican and primary sponsor of the bill, said the state should be able to collect data on students' citizenship status to show the true results of the federal government's "unfunded mandate" to educate children who are here illegally.

"We must have fiscal research of the impact that illegal immigration is having on North Carolina," Folwell said. "Some people have estimated that over the last 10 years, North Carolina's illegal immigration population growth rate - growth rate - has exceeded California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas."

It's unclear, though, whether the data collected would provide a complete picture of illegal immigration in the state. The bill would require principals to ask only about the citizenship of students. But any child born in the United States is a citizen, even if his or her parents are illegal.

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