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Thursday, August 28, 1997

INS denounces false rumors about school raids

HOUSTON (AP) -- As the school year begins in the nation's fourth-largest city, so do false reports that immigrant children will be rounded up and deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

INS reassured frightened immigrant parents in Houston this week that the agency does not raid the schools to collect students.

"There's no validity to the rumor," INS spokeswoman Kristi Barrows said Tuesday. "It is the Department of Justice policy that we do not conduct operations in schools."

Nevertheless, rumors that INS does conduct illegal immigrant raids in schools have dissuaded some immigrant parents from enrolling their children, advocates say.

"The problem is fear," said Benito Juarez, coordinator for the Houston Immigration & Refugee Coalition. "The problem is insecurities that people have. They worry about what is going to happen and what's taking effect."

Juarez said his organization and others have received several phone calls from frightened parents since schools began classes last week.

"We haven't heard a thing about this," Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, said of the rumors. "And there hasn't been any evidence of such (INS actions). It's nothing that we're aware of at all."

HISD officials said that since last year, noncitizen enrollment in the district has increased. However, they had no statistics available for changes in immigrant enrollment.

Juarez's group also complained that officials at the Spring Independent School District, just north of Houston, have required Social Security cards from enrolling students.

"We received calls here from parents who were worried about not having a Social Security number," Juarez said. "They think they'll be disqualified from school. But the parents, under the law, don't have to show their Social Security cards."

Juarez says such a requirement violates a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits policies that would limit access to public schools, even for undocumented immigrants who would not legally possess such a card.

Spokesman Jerry Smith said the Spring district has never required a Social Security card, although he acknowledged that district literature stated that a Social Security number was "needed" for enrollment.

"We do not require a Social Security card, but we do ask for a Social Security card," said Smith. "However you interpret it, the fact of the matter is that a (Social Security number) is not required."