Kid is busted for drugs at school. Cops are called. Parents are called. Cops determine the whole family are in the country illegally (smoking the pot that Americans wonÂ’t smoke?) and call the Border Patrol. Family gets deported.

Sounds like a happy ending to me, in accordance with the laws of the United States.

Unfortunately, students and administrators in the Tucson Unified School District disagreed. And now the cops have announced their intention to ignore, rather than enforce, the law.

>About a hundred students demonstrated outside a Tucson high school Tuesday, then marched five miles downtown to protest the arrest and removal to Mexico of a classmate and his family.

The students apparently did not walk out of classes but arrived at Catalina High School on ready to demonstrate and head to the federal building, Tucson Unified School District spokeswoman Chryl Hill Lander said.

Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Mark Robinson said at least some of the demonstrators veered off to congregate peacefully outside police headquarters.

* * *

School officials searched the backpack of a 17-year-old freshman who was incoherent, and when they found a substance that looked like marijuana, called police — standard procedure.

"Police were called in because there was marijuana found in a student's backpack," Lander said. "Administrators have the right to go through a backpack when the situation warrants, and the student was acting strangely, was incoherent. He wasn't able to talk and make complete sentences," she said.

Police called the boy's parents and asked them to come to the school. When they arrived, police asked to see their drivers' licenses.

The parents acknowledged living in the United States illegally with their two sons, including a sixth-grader, for a half-dozen years.

Police in turn notified the Border Patrol, who took all four people into custody.
Immigrants rights activists voiced concern about the incident, but Tucson police defended calling the Border Patrol as the appropriate action.

In other words, this is really straightforward. They weren’t even looking for illegals – they were dealing with a kid so stoned that he couldn’t see straight who got busted with drugs. The discovery of the immigration status was merely incidental. This is the classic case of when everyone OUGHT to agree that rounding them up and sending them home is appropriate

IÂ’m particularly incensed by this comment.

Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, said allowing immigration agents into schools could create more mistrust and fear in the immigrant community.

More mistrust? More fear? You say that like it is a bad thing. I want them so damn scared that they are pissing their pants every time they set foot on the streets of our nation or hear a knock on the door. I want them so mistrustful and frightened that they go back to their countries of origin. Criminals OUGHT to be mistrustful and fearful, and it is a sign of mental and moral weakness to think that they should not be.

And yet you get a street protest by a bunch of kids cutting school, many of whom are probably in this country illegally themselves.

On Tuesday morning, more than 100 students, mostly from Catalina, gathered outside TPD headquarters, 270 S. Stone Ave., to protest the removal of the boy and his family by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Police called Border Patrol officials after they had been told by the family that is had been in the country illegally, police officials said.

But the students, some carrying signs including "Migra (immigration agents) out of our schools," said they should not be afraid they might be yanked from their classrooms by immigration police.

In Arizona, public school districts are forbidden by law to deny an education to any school-age child living here, Tucson Unified School District officials said.

The district's stance on the issue was clear: "We don't want immigration laws enforced on our campuses," said TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer.

He, deputy superintendent Patti Lopez and police officials including Assistant Chief Roberto Villaseñor, met as the protesters waited in a orderly fashion outside the station.

Pfeuffer said Villaseñor came out to speak with students after their meeting and pointed out that police never would have called the Border Patrol if police hadn't been called to the school for criminal activity.

Villaseñor said police have to ask the question of citizenship when they are taking someone into custody.

Community activist Isabel Garcia questioned that action. And, she added, "You should not have called Border Patrol onto campus."

Someone explain to me why the Border Patrol should not have been called. When you become aware of a violation of the law, that is what ought to happen. Any kid who doesn’t feel safe because they come on campus probably has good reason to feel unsafe, and does not belong at the school – or in this country. And as for the superintendent of the district, may I suggest that if he doesn’t want immigration laws enforced on his district’s campuses, he needs to immediately renounce and return all federal aid of any kind. After all, most Americans don’t want their tax money being spent on illegal aliens of for schools where contempt for the law is openly encouraged. Heck, I hope some courageous member of Congress will seek to add a rider to some bill targeting every penny that TUSD receives in federal money.

And then the cops folded like a cheap hide-a-bed.

Villaseñor said Tuesday afternoon that TPD would no longer call the Border Patrol to churches or schools, although it will cooperate with the Border Patrol.

Got that, folks – churches and schools in Tucson are now law-free zones, where cops will ignore illegal activity. Disgusting.

The time has come for our nation to start enforcing policies penalizing sanctuary cities – and expanding those policies to also penalize sanctuary schools. Not only should schools not be allowed to ignore our nation’s immigration laws, but they should be expected to cooperate with immigration authorities. They should also be forbidden to penalize employees who report immigration violations brought to their attention.

Posted by: Greg at 01:20 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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