ACLU Sues Essex County School That Asks Immigrants For ID
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The ACLU of New Jersey is suing an Essex County charter school – and 11 other school districts – for allegedly flaunting state law and requiring undocumented immigrants to produce identification they don’t have access to.
On Thursday, the ACLU-NJ announced that it filed suit against 11 public school districts and one public charter school in Essex County: East Orange Community Charter School.
According to the ACLU-NJ, all of the defendants ask for forms of state-issued identification that require Social Security numbers or “valid immigration status” as a condition for students to enroll, a requirement that New Jersey law “clearly forbids.”
At East Orange Community Charter School, which is located on four sites throughout East Orange, administrators allegedly ask for “a valid driver’s license or State ID,” which are both impossible for undocumented immigrants to get, the court complaint charges.
This violates New Jersey’s state Constitution, which calls for free public education for every child… with no ifs, ands or buts, said ACLU-NJ Staff Attorney Elyla Huertas.
“In a state where one in five residents is foreign-born, at a time when our president has made the exclusion of immigrants a key part of his policy agenda, it’s more important than ever for every school district in New Jersey to meet its obligations, both to New Jersey’s families and to the Constitution,” Huertas said.
A pre-enrollment document on the East Orange Community Charter School’s website states that prospective parents need to provide:
- “Child’s birth certificate”
- “Parent/Guardian Picture ID (Driver’s License, State ID)”
In addition to East Orange Community Charter School, the suit names the following school districts:
- Northern Valley Regional High School District (Bergen County)
- Bellmawr School District (Camden County)
- Sterling Regional High School District (Camden County)
- Winslow Township School District (Camden County)
- West New York School District (Hudson County)
- Sea Girt School District (Monmouth County)
- Harding Township School District (Morris County)
- Watchung Hills Regional High School District (Somerset County)
- Montague School District (Sussex County)
- Cranford School District (Union County)
- Allamuchy School District (Warren County)
There are other school districts that also “impose improper requirements” on immigrant parents, but the ACLU-NJ chose to only sue the 12 “most restrictive,” the nonprofit stated. Those districts weren’t named in a press statement about the lawsuit.
“The exclusionary policies are particularly disturbing in light of the climate of fear in immigrant communities,” the organization stated in a news release.
Several districts have come under the civil rights group’s scrutiny before. The ACLU-NJ said:
“In 2008 and 2014, the ACLU-NJ conducted audits of the state’s 560+ school districts to identify problematic enrollment requirements. Five of the districts sued today also appeared on the 2014 list of offenders, and two of those districts – Watchung Hills Regional High School District and Montague School District – were identified as having discriminatory policies both in 2008 and in 2014… Sterling School District, Bellmawr Public Schools, Sea Girt School District, Watchung Hills Regional High School District, and Montague School District were on the list in 2014. Northern Valley, Watchung, and Montague were identified has having unconstitutional enrollment policies in 2008.”
In the last four years, the group has sued 13 districts that had policies similar to those challenged on Thursday. The track record is in their favor; in each instance, the case settled after the district agreed to change its policy, ACLU-NJ spokespeople said.
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File Photo: NJ MVC
