Since the inception era, immigrants who settled down in the United States were offered the opportunity for an education. Today's immigrants should be treated no differently. In the United States, providing public education to children of undocumented immigrants becomes an ethical obligation.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees equal educational opportunities to children born in this country and to migrant children alike. So children of illegal immigrants are entitled to a public education like all others. Children are children. Regardless of their parents' status, they are a part of our society; they are the future of the country, but they simply happen to be trapped in the shadow of a cynical immigration system.
The pilgrims, along with their children, who were seeking religious freedom in America, were welcomed and accommodated. The United States has always been more receptive to European immigrants. In the early days, European immigrants were prized commodities, and there were no questions about their legal status. They automatically blended in and received all the benefits that were available. As we all know, this is another era and a very different type of immigrants today. Now they are mostly Hispanics. Time, need and race play a big role in how state and local authorities perceive illegal immigrants and the education of their children.
No doubt that those who show objection to the education of undocumented children somehow back up their opposing views. For instance, they claim that allowing those children to the school system puts a huge burden on local districts and states. Others probably complain that parents of those children don't pay taxes and that their tax money is being used for the wrong purpose. What is worse is that the state government of Alabama went as far as passing a law banning undocumented children from attending school. In contrast, The New York Times calls this law cruel and counterproductive.
Educating undocumented children will pay up dividends. Most of them are committed to working hard to earn a piece of the American pie. They manifest their commitment in school, in the menial work they do or in any entrepreneurial responsibility being delegated to them. They work with determination and a purpose. They see a future that surpasses the back-breaking labor of their parents. Once they obtain a university degree or a trade, they automatically have something good to give to society or to the United States as a whole. Those children, because of their illegal status, go the extra mile to get things done, and they are often the most grateful on earth.
Once those children become U.S. citizens, they blend in well. They have a story to tell. It's a story of their lives and about where they come from and where they are today. This is also an American success story. “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too." Barack Obama.
