School enrollment in Tulsa, OK is dropping due to new law on immigration. Many families are leaving the area in fear of being deported back to Mexico.
The new law, House Bill 1804, which is in effect starting Nov. 1, requires law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of people who are arrested in felony and drunken-driving cases and also contains measures to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining employment and public benefits.
Many illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico, are moving quickly from the Tulsa area for Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, California and even back to Mexico.
The departure of some immigrant families, combined with the reluctance of some remaining in Tulsa to send their children to school, is having an impact on schools across the city.
Enrollment at Kendall-Whittier Elementary School as rebounded significantly since the first day of school, when 18 percent of the school's 1,000 students failed to show up.
Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold, the law firm that represents Tulsa Public Schools and more than 300 other school districts in Oklahoma, has advised its school clients not to ask about the citizenship of any student or differentiate between students in any special services or programs.
The difficulty in getting some students to attend school is in convincing parents that their children will be safe there.
The story of Tulsa and its mass exodus of illegal immigrants is a two-fold story of the lack of value put onto education by impoverished minorities and the first step in a new immigration policy. Many hope that this law will be passed nationwide in a move to help eradicate illegal aliens.
This was the main topic on CNN and Fox News' O'Reilly Factor show hosted by nationally syndicated host Bill O'Reilly.
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