New Jersey's immigration interrogation

September 8, 12:28 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey says that one out of every five schools in the state is attempting to exclude undocumented immigrant children from its classrooms by demanding -- or, at least, firmly requesting -- Social Security numbers and other proof of their immigration status. Says the ACLU-NJ:

Beginning in July, the ACLU-NJ attempted to survey 635 New Jersey school entities listed by county on the Department of Education website (615 districts as well as 20 charter schools, which have unique application processes) to assess the legality of their enrollment requirements. ACLU-NJ staff and volunteers successfully contacted 516, or 80 percent, of all school districts and charter schools.

The survey found that 139 - over a quarter of those successfully contacted - illegally required information that would reveal the Social Security number or immigration status of students seeking to enroll despite state, federal and constitutional laws prohibiting the practice. Another 48 suggested that immigration information would help in the registration process. Thus, a total of 187 - more than one in three - responded in violation of the law or in a manner prone to deter student enrollment.

At least 35 school districts in the state requested Social Security numbers or immigration information on their written enrollment forms, including Hackensack, Hoboken and Roselle Park.

Monmouth County was the worst offender, with 26 districts requiring citizenship or immigration-related information to enroll.

"Violation of the law"?

Why, yes. New Jersey law is very particular on this point. According to Chapter 22 (PDF) of the New Jersey Department of Education Administrative Code:

(d) A district board of education shall not require or request, as a condition of enrollment in school, any information or document protected from disclosure by law, or pertaining to criteria which are not legitimate bases for determining eligibility to attend school. These include:

1. Income tax returns;
2. Documentation or information relating to citizenship or immigration/visa status, except as set forth in N.J.A.C. 6A:22-3.3(b);
3. Documentation or information relating to compliance with local housing ordinances or conditions of tenancy; and
4. Social security numbers. 

The law also says, "Except as set forth in (b)1 below [which refers to a Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status], immigration/visa status shall not affect eligibility to attend school." So immigration status isn't even relevant to a child's eligibility to attend the public schools -- even illegal immigrants can attend. So there's no point in illegally requesting Social Security numbers and citizenship papers unless you also intend to illegally exclude students who can't supply those documents.

It's a violation of the law on two counts.

Of course, advocates for inquiring into children's residency status argue that undocumented immigrants place an undue burden on public services for which they don't even pay. Why should immigrant kids be taught in schools when their parents don't pay the taxes that support those schools?

But, it turns out, they do pay. According to an April story in USA Today, the Social Security Administration "estimates that for 2005, the last year for which figures are available, about $9 billion in taxes was paid on about $75 billion in wages from people who filed W2 forms with incorrect or mismatched data, which would include illegal immigrants who drew paychecks under fake names and Social Security numbers."

And remember, workers using fake numbers may pay Social Security taxes, but they won't be able to collect -- that money helps to subsidize the system.

Likewise, says USA Today:

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't have an estimate of how many illegal immigrants pay income tax.

But one indicator is the 9 million W-2 forms with mismatched names and Social Security numbers it received in 2004. The IRS said the W-2 forms with invalid Social Security numbers reported about $53 billion in wages and about three-fourths of that, $40 billion in wages, had taxes withheld.

Yes, illegal immigrants are being bled white by the tax man, just like legal workers.

Of course, since illegals are working and living in the shadows, we don't know exactly how much they're paying relative to how much the government actually wants, but it's a substantial amount. Just two years ago, the Reason Foundation reported, "Close to 8 million of the 12 million or so illegal aliens in the country today file personal income taxes using [IRS-issued identification numbers], contributing billions to federal coffers."

That number is even more impressive when you remember that even legal workers aren't paying the full tab. Hundreds of billions of dollars go uncollected no matter the immigration status of the workers in question -- income tax compliance is no higher than 84%.

So illegal immigrants are paying for the services they use at a pretty credible rate -- and they don't have access to some of those services, even though they pay a hefty tab.

Denying children access to the public schools, then, isn't just illegal and contemptible, it also isn't justified by the economics.