I have a friend that lives in Del Rio, Texas. I go there to visit on my annual trip south every year. The best way to go across the border is to drive to Wal-Mart, park your car, then catch the Wal-Mart bus to the border. That way your car is parked in a relatively safe area of town. Get off the bus, walk across the border, then take a taxi anywhere you want to go. Wal-mart runs a bus from the border to the Shopping Mall, then back to the border. Transports a lot of Mexicans to Wal-Mart, then back to the border.
I've been to Del Rio, and seen Mexicans riding the Wal-Mart bus from the border to Wal-Mart. Then watched some of the kids walk to the local elementary school. After school the kids walk to the Mall, then ride the bus back to the border. Now I read this in the news today.
Texas District Rejects Mexican Students
AOL / Wire Services
posted: 36 MINUTES AGO
filed under: National News
(Oct.
-- A border community's school district has become the latest flashpoint in the nation's immigration debate.
The school district in Del Rio, Texas, about three and a half hours west of San Antonio, has cracked down on what officials say are Mexican students attending U.S. public schools there, according to news reports.
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A Controversial Crackdown
A school district on the Texas border cracked down on what officials said were students crossing over from Mexico to attend school. Here, two students from Lamar Elementary school in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District walk home in September. AP said it wasn't clear whether any of these students were those from Mexico.
A Controversial Crackdown
A school district on the Texas border has drawn national attention after a crackdown on what officials said were students crossing over from Mexico to attend school there. Here, two students from Lamar Elementary school in the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District walk home after school in September.
"We had several van loads (with Mexican license plates) pulling up at the schools and kids getting out. It's like 'C'mon, it's obvious what's going on,'" Kelt Cooper, superintendent of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District, told The Associated Press.
He directed district officials to stake out a border bridge in early September and warn students they could face expulsion if they don't prove they live in the district — a move that's brought complaints from civil rights groups and support from anti-immigrant proponents.
"We have a law. We have a policy. We follow it," said Cooper, whose spent most of his life near the border and is uncomfortable with attempts to make him a cause celebre for either side of the immigration debate. "I'm just doing my job."
Civil rights organizers don't take issue with the district's policies, but do take issue with way officials choose to enforce them.
"Talk about trying to intimidate people and draw fear in the community," David Hinojosa told Newsweek. Hinojosa is the staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "One might send a letter to the parent asking them to contact the district office, but setting up some checkpoint on the other side of the border is outrageous."
To prove residency, parents must provide documents such as a utility bill in their name or a lease, CNN reported. But one parent told the news station that her husband was deported to Mexico, and she now lives with her sister-in-law. That means all the bills are in the other woman's name, Carla Gomez said.
Of 195 students targeted on the bridge last month, about 150 quickly proved residency, Cooper told the Del Rio News-Herald this week. Several students never showed up to class again. Of the others, he told the local newspaper, the district is still working to confirm residency.
