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Undocumented Students
"Illegal immigrants pay for public schools just as we do, when they pay rent, pay state taxes on purchases or buy lottery tickets. "
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By Anna Alexander
Immigration issues have created heated debates amongst Americans, especially because of the increase of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States. With this increase, immigrant youth have begun to have a greater impact on the population in public high schools. Youth Radio's Anna Alexander shares why she thinks it's unfair for undocumented immigrant students to be kicked out of American schools.
I spend a lot of time with the Latino students at my school. Most of them are illegal immigrants, so I was shocked when I heard about a state bill that would kick them out of the school system. It doesn't make sense to me. Illegal immigrants pay for public schools just as we do, when they pay rent, pay state taxes on purchases or buy lottery tickets.
But, that is really not the point. Far more important is what will happen to these young people if they can't go to school. Now, imagine what would happen if you had houses with little children left unsupervised while their parents were at work. It would not take long for criminals and sexual predators to take advantage of this situation. No one deserves to be put at risk like that.
Denying kids education at any level helps create some of the same problems anti-immigrant activists are fighting. It creates an even larger uneducated work force. With schooling, immigrants have the potential to help fill significant job shortages. The engineering team that won a college underwater robotics competition, beating MIT, consisted of illegal immigrants from a southwestern public high school. They are as much a part of this country's future as American born teens.
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