Civil Rights Groups File Suit Against Alabama Immigration Law

Calling Alabama's anti-immigration law enacted in June the strictest in the nation, civil rights groups are wanting to put a stop to it. Among other provision the law requires public schools to determine students' immigration status. It will go into effect September 1, 2011.
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U.S. Warns Schools Against Checking Immigration Status
Federal officials issued a memorandum to the nation’s school districts on Friday saying it was against the law for education officials to seek information that might reveal the immigration status of children applying for enrollment. The memo states: “The undocumented or noncitizen status of a student (or his or her parent or guardian) is irrelevant to that student’s entitlement to an elementary and secondary public school education.”
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Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North

Economic, demographic and social changes in Mexico are suppressing illegal immigration as much as the poor economy or legal crackdowns in the United States. The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: unheralded changes in Mexico that have made staying home more attractive.
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Education secretary tells Congress: Change No Child Left Behind - or I will

The Obama administration is raising the stakes for Congress to act on reforming No Child Left Behind. If Congress won't act to reauthorize and amend the act - officially the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) - then the administration will start addressing some of the act's flaws itself, Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned Monday.

Duncan emphasized that he was still hopeful that Congress would act to reauthorize the ESEA, since there is a great deal of bipartisan agreement that the law is flawed and that certain changes are needed. But he said if that doesn't happen, he would take advantage of language in the original bill which gives him authority to grant waivers.

Duncan has yet to provide details about which provisions he would waive, but he would almost certainly address the requirement that all students be proficient by 2014. He would also likely give districts more flexibility in how they deal with failing schools, as opposed to requiring that funds be spend on extra tutoring or school-choice provisions, as the law currently states.
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Senate Democrats Reintroduce Dream Act
Senate Democrats are reintroducing a bill that would give legal status to some illegal immigrants who came into the United States as children.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, along with Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said the Senate will revive the Dream Act, one of the few signature pieces of Democratic legislation that failed during the lame-duck session of the last Congress, when Democrats controlled both chambers.

The bill would provide legal status and a path to citizenship to young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children.
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SUCCEED Act Revived
A California lawmaker has reintroduced the SUCCEED (Strengthen and Unite Communities with Civics Education & English Development) Act that will help immigrant populations integrate into American society by providing instruction in language and civics skills. The reintroduction of the bill was lauded by various Asian groups which noted that it is particularly important for the Asian American community.

“Nationally, one in four Asian American households is linguistically isolated, meaning that everyone over the age of 14 speaks English less than very well,” Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center stated. The executive director of the Asian American Institute said that the bill would allow immigrants to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to become fully active and engaged members of American society.
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Latino Education Crisis Detailed In White House Report

A report released Wednesday by the White House and the U.S. Department of Education details the current crisis in Latino education. While one in four American children is Latino, according to the document, the demographic has "the lowest education attainment levels" in the country.

But fewer than half of such youths are enrolled in early learning programs. Only half of the population earns a high school diploma on time, and when those students do, they're half as likely to be ready for college. As the report notes, only 13 percent of the population hold Bachelors degrees.

"There is no doubt that the future of the United States is inextricably tied to the future of the Hispanic community," President Obama stated in the document, which ties the state of Latino education to Obama's 2020 goal of having the country lead the world in college graduates. As the report notes, if the Latino population continues to lag behind in education, that objective cannot be met.
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