Doris Brunson, chairwoman of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, said Orange County should speak out against those opposed to allowing undocumented children equal access to public education.
“So many opponents have said their objection to the children, especially for education, because they’re not taxpayers,” Brunson said.
Sarah Preston, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said the ACLU is part of a class-action lawsuit filed this summer that is working to give undocumented children the right to legal representation in an immigration court.
“You have recognized that these children risk so much to come here to be reunited with family members or to be placed with caregivers, and we can and should protect them from the conditions they are fleeing,” she said.
George Eppsteiner, a staff attorney for the Southern Coalition of Social Justice based out of Durham, referenced the Plyler v. Doe case, a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1982 that prevents a local school board in a state from denying free public education to undocumented school-age children.
“The reason this particular resolution is important for the board to consider is because it is a very important conversation that our state is having regarding immigration,” he said.
“But there’s also a conversation that is occurring in other local boards of commissioners that has been making a statement about children coming from outside the United States being a burden on their school districts, and, therefore, they don’t want to welcome these children into their local schools.”
Commissioner Mark Dorosin said Orange County needs to be a leader by accepting undocumented children.
