Under The Sun
A new wave of immigrants is transforming communities nowhere near the border
New threats. Police are also grappling with fresh challenges. After Charlotte recorded 19 gang killings in three years, federal prosecutors in 2003 formed a special unit to target Latino gangs, including the traditionally Salvadoran MS-13. The gangs, many comprising illegal immigrants, trafficked in drugs and committed car thefts and drive-by shootings. Twenty members of MS-13 were eventually charged with murder, and 110 gang members who weren't U.S. citizens were arrested and deported.
But no issue has touched a nerve like education. As Latino enrollment grows--45 schools in the Charlotte area have Hispanic enrollment of 20 percent or more--so have concerns about the strains on the system. Woodard's group says that one third of the state's 78,700 limited-English students are here illegally or are dependents of undocumented residents. Their presence, Woodard argues, is taking resources away from children of legal residents.
All these issues came together earlier this year in a debate over proposed state legislation that would have allowed foreign-born children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at North Carolina colleges. Federal law obligates states to educate children of illegal immigrants through high school, but foreign-born students have to pay out-of-state tuition if they go to college. "That bill," said Bazan Manson, "brought everything to a head."
Conceived by Latino advocates, the legislation was intended as an incentive for Latino students to stay in high school and to make college affordable to young people like Perla Parra, a 16-year-old born in Mexico but raised in the United States by her undocumented parents since she was a year old. She takes French and sings in the choir at the performing arts magnet school in the Research Triangle area, and she wants to study psychology or medicine in college. But she'd have to pay out-of-state student tuition and, without citizenship, is ineligible for financial aid. "I plan on staying here and hope eventually I can get the same opportunity as others," she says.
Firestorm. Initially, 33 state legislators signed on to the bill, but the backlash was so swift and fierce that by the end of the week of its introduction at least a half dozen lawmakers had withdrawn their support; by late April the number who had backed out was up to 11. Organizations like "Stop the Invasion!" and NC Listen argued that the bill would encourage more illegal immigration. Even Rush Limbaugh weighed in to oppose it. "Giving privileges to people who break the law is not helping the issue," says Woodard of NC Listen. He argues that the state should stay out of the business of making laws regarding undocumented immigrants and should work instead with Washington to enforce existing immigration laws to stem the influx. "Illegal immigrants and unscrupulous employers are doing things that hurt Americans," says Woodard, a high-tech worker. "I understand why people want to come to America, but low-skilled Americans also want to make their lives better. It has finally reached a situation where the public has said they've had enough."
Though similar legislation has passed in nine states and is also being considered at the federal level, Bazan Manson says she knew the tuition bill would involve a tough battle, and she received a flood of E-mails, some of them threatening. The bill is now dying in a legislative committee. Next year, she says, the tuition proposal will be back, but the effort will be more behind the scenes.
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