Immigration Reform and educators failures

Congress passed Immigration Reform. From my reading of the bill (well, the summary of the bill) I am glad for its passage. The Senate version however is another story. Anyone voting for THAT version is bad. It has (though named otherwise) amnesty in it.

I would like to see family members NOT be given green cards that do not count against the immigrant caps.

The Minnesota House members who voted for the bill were Gutknecht, Kline, Ramstad, Kennedy and Peterson, all of whom get + 3. Voting against the bill were Sabo (did I mention Good Riddance?), McCollum and Oberstar, the latter 2 getting - 3.

Now understand that people who enter this country without going through the process are Illegal Immigrants. Don't like the term then don't come across illegally. They already are showing a disrespect for our laws and for that alone they should be kicked out of the country. Name another country on the face of this planet that allows anyone and everyone into the country to receive benefits as if they were a citizen. Name another country on the face of this planet that allows someone to forge documents to pretend they are eligible for those benefits and then the country finds ways to give amnesty.

So kids in schools across the country are upset at the immigration reform. And further proving the inability of the adults in the schools to maintain a standard a principle in Texas caves in to students instead of disciplining them for skipping school.

A high-school principal who raised the Mexican flag on a campus flagpole as a show of support for Hispanic students was disciplined yesterday as the school district grappled with massive student walkouts.

Robert Pambello, principal of John H. Reagan High School in Houston, received "appropriate disciplinary action," said Terry Abbott, a spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, adding that no details would be released because it was a personnel matter.

Mr. Abbott said the principal was attempting to avert a walkout sparked by the debate over immigration reform in Congress by agreeing to raise the distinctive red, green and white flag Wednesday in exchange for students' staying in class.

"He was working with students at the school to try to avoid a walkout situation by raising the Mexican flag underneath the American and Texas flags," Mr. Abbott said. "They didn't walk out, but it was the wrong thing to do."

If they miss school then suspend them. Do not allow the teachers to allow make-up work. How out of control have the adults allowed the kids to get? The problem is occurring in other states as well. This story is from Iowa.

More than 150 Marshalltown High School students skipped class today (Wednesday) to protest a measure that would make it a felony to illegally enter the United States.

The demonstrators, who reportedly displayed a pole with the Mexican flag flying over the U-S flag, encountered some angry residents as they spread their message across the city.

Marshalltown Police Chief Lon Walker says officers had to intervene after water bottles were thrown at the protesters and tempers started to rise.

The protesters, most of them Hispanics, left classes at Marshalltown High School and assembled at the Marshall County Courthouse. The students continued to the south side of town, where the confrontations occurred.

The rally comes as the Senate considers legislation that would also impose new penalties on employers who hire illegals and build more fences along the U-S-Mexico border.

Police intervened by nailing people who were throwing things? How about nailing the kids for truancy?

The fact that these kids are (1) so obviously undereducated on the topic where they fail to make the connection between ILLEGAL immigration and LEGAL immigration, (2) so poorly equipped with the ability to think for themselves on issues as they have been trained by teachers what to think, not how to think and (3) able to act without reprisals of any substance shows the disarray of the education system.

This article illustrates what happenes when you give strong penalties for this nonsense...

No walkouts were reported in the giant Los Angeles school district, the nation's second-largest.

"I have to go to school today because they called my home and said I had to go to school or I'm going to get a citation," said Rene Hernandez, 15, a student at Van Nuys High School who took part in earlier protests.

A few hundred students walked out of classes in San Diego, a far smaller number than in previous days. "We are not having students walking off campus in large droves," district spokeswoman Music McCall said.

Tens of thousands of students took to streets around California and in other states Monday and Tuesday, but those numbers fell after police began breaking up marches and issuing costly truancy and loitering citations.

...and what happens when you do too little...

In California's Central Valley, 200 to 400 students left Bakersfield schools, but there were no arrests, police Detective Jack Smith said.

About 500 students at Van Nuys High School attended a lunchtime forum, where immigration lawyer Jessica Dominguez urged them to stay in class.

"What are we doing when we walk out of school? We are telling the senators that are against the good immigration bills ... that they are right," she said.
...
In Arizona, at least 800 students left class to gather outside a Tucson federal building, waving Mexican flags and signs and chanting, "We're not criminals."

Look at those numbers. Without punishment in the community (arrests on the most serious offenses possible) and in the school (suspension, inability to make up classwork, etc) the lack of control will continue.

And to the kids in Tucson, AZ...if you are here illegally you are criminals.