By Melissa del Bosque Texas Observer
The line of cars on the Del Rio International Toll Bridge stretched back toward Ciudad Acua Mexico as people waited to cross northward. Headlights glimmered in the dawn as U.S. immigration officers waved folks through all except for vehicles with children which were directed to exit to the right of the bridge. At first it looked like business as usual in the early morning hours of Wednesday Sept. 9. There Del Rio school district employees handed out fliers citing Texas educational and penal codes.
Upon conducting a check at the Port of Entry your child was observed crossing into the United State from Mexico to attend school. … Your child will be withdrawn from the school immediately" the notices read in part. Please come to the Office of Pupil Services … to provide proof of residence in the United States."
About 200 notices were issued that morning. The orders had come from Del Rios new school superintendent Kelt Cooper who has made it a priority to root out Mexican residents attending school in his district. Port Director Mike Perez who has worked at the bridge since 1979 says that previous school administrators occasionally came to the bridge with clipboards jotting down students names. But it hadnt been done for a few years" he says. The flier is new. Ive never seen that done before."
The Del Rio News-Herald headlined its story District Cracks Down on Illegal Students." Cooper told the paper that a census taken two day earlier had provoked the crackdown. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agentsat Coopers requesthad counted the number of school-age children crossing on Monday Sept. 7. On Monday mornings families typically return to Del Rio after spending the weekend with relatives in Ciudad Acua. Perez says that agents counted about 500 children.
Cooper said the situation was out of control." When we have vans with Coahuila license plates dropping kids off at elementary schools and a report that says hundreds of kids are coming across" Cooper told a News-Herald reporter we have a problem. With these kinds of numbers it was out of control. … (I)t was right in our face." What wasnt explained in the story was that all 500 children that crossed that Monday were either U.S. citizens Legal Permanent Residents or had valid student visas to attend private schools in Del Rio.
CNN and Fox News picked up on the local story and ran with it. In short order Cooper became a national hero to anti-immigration activists. But local civil rights organizations began looking into potential rights violations. There was no due process" says Courtney Schusheim an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in Del Rio. If you came across the bridge you were automatically withdrawn from school."
The law is clear when it comes to a students immigration status. In its 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school officials cannot ask about a students citizenship status. But according to Texas state lawwhich Cooper says he was followingchildren must reside in the district where they attend public schools.
All but 20 of the approximately 200 students issued warnings on Sept. 9 eventually returned to Del Rio schools. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid assisted at least 15 families who didnt meet the new residency requirements imposed by Cooper. Some missed school for up to four weeks. But the crackdown and Coopers blunt comments to the press about his actions dredged up lingering racial division in Del Rio where Mexican Americans have fought for equal education rights for more than century.
Mexican Americans in Del Rio say that whatever the legalities Coopers actions had a chilling effect that could hinder their efforts to enroll more children in school. Its not in our interest to keep children who are U.S. citizens from getting
a proper education" says Alpha Hernandez another attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Every year some children dont get registered. Ive seen children 7- or 8- years-old that have never attended school. We are already suffering from high unemployment and low educational achievement."
Cooper sees the issue as clear-cut. It was never a question of immigration status he says but of residency. If 200 children crossing at 6:30 on a Wednesday morning is not cause enough to be suspicious then I dont know what is" he says. No I guess they all have sick aunts because thats what a lot of them said.
We have a duty to be reasonable about this but to what degree we want to be reasonable can be argued."
While Coopers response appears to be unprecedented in Texas the broader issue is nothing new. For decades superintendents along the U.S.-Mexico border have struggled to ensure that Mexican students dont attend schools on the taxpayers dime. With families spanning both sides of the border determining who has the right to attend U.S. schools can be complex.
David Hinojosa a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal & Educational Defense Fund says he cannot recall similar checkpoints in the state. I think its outrageous" he says. If hes so concerned about residency why doesnt he go to the eastern or western boundaries of his county to see if any students are crossing into his school district?"
Kelt Coopers crackdown stirred up a passel of bad memories for Mexican Americans in Del Rio. Since the turn of the last century they have foughtsometimes with fists but more often through the legal systemto educate their children.
The nations first important school desegregation case for Mexican Americans was decided there in 1928. The Anglo ranchers who ran the city had barred Mexican-American students from attending a then-newly constructed school in Del Rio. The parents got together and said This is not right. We pay taxes. We helped build the school so our children should be able to attend" says Eloy Padilla an assistant city attorney. A district court agreed. The Court of Civil Appeals of Texas in Independent School District v. Salvatierra overturned the ruling.
The case galvanized Del Rios Mexican-American community which set its sights on improving its own schools. I dont think the superintendent is aware of how sensitive this town is" Padilla says. There are still some very raw nerves among a lot of us. Any semblance of prejudice or discrimination we are going to rise up and fight back. This town has been known to do that for more than 60 years. Weve never been known to sit back quietly."
On the surface Del Rio looks placid. With a current population of roughly 48000 it sits three miles north of the Rio Grande and retains a small-town quaintness despite the busy Laughlin Air Force Base on its outskirts. Farmers steer tractors down the main thoroughfare. People still greet one another by first names.
But 40 years ago Del Rio was sharply divided along racial lines. The San Felipe barrio south of the railroad tracks and closer to Mexico was populated almost exclusively by Mexican Americans. Anglos lived north of the tracks.
A slow and sometimes painful integration over the decades has blurred the old prejudices. Alpha Guzman a 55-year-old Del Rio native says that when she asks her 17-year-old grandson about the ethnicity of his friends he shrugs and says I dont know." She also recalls the time he asked about their ancestry. I told him We are Mexican. He said Oh granny that sounds ugly."
Guzman tells me this as she sits outside the Casa de la Cultura in San Felipe on a balmy November evening. The center is at the historical heart of the old Mexican-American neighborhood. About 50 yards away runs the picturesque San Felipe Creek once another barrier between Hispanics and Anglos. Elderly residents of San Felipe still tell tales of their youth when a vato from the barrio couldnt cross the creek bridge without suffering taunts and dodging rocks thrown by the gringos on the north side.
For Guzman and her peers Coopers actions looked like another volley in a battle theyve been fighting their whole lives. Guzman graduated high school in 1972 another infamous year in local history. During her senior year the San Felipe and Del Rio school districts were consolidated ending official segregation. Things grew so heated that year she recalls that police had to be stationed in the hallways to break up fistfights. Separate proms had to be organized.
The kids from San Felipe wanted to hear Mexican music" Guzman says. The Anglos wanted heavy metal music. We couldnt agree so we each got our own prom."
Fifteen years later she recalls the class of 72 still couldnt come together. For their 15th reunion we met at a bar in Mexico" says Guzman. And some of the Anglo students came in with a boom box and put in a heavy metal tape. One of our guys went out to his car and came back with his own cassette of Mexican music and put it in their boom box."
The owner ripped out the cassette. Anglo alumni stood up Guzman recalls and one said This reunion is over and then they walked out of the bar." There were no more reunions after that. I heard that they meet in Las Vegas now" Guzman says and hold their own reunion there."
Inside the cultural center Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has called a meeting to try to clear up the confusion about the school districts residency requirements. At least 65 people mostly parents and grandparents cram into a small meeting room on folding metal chairs. In an adjacent kitchen women prepare refried beans for chalupas and stir fruit punch that will be served after the meeting. Children strum Cielito Lindo in a guitar class next door.
Two months after the now-infamous flier incident some parents are still unsure what residency documents their children need. Others still wonder why they were asked to provide additional documentation when other families were not.
Maria Consuela Campa raises her hand with a question for Pedro Cruz the legal aid lawyer giving a PowerPoint presentation. Her sister lives in Del Rio she says and has power of attorney over her sona document formerly accepted by the district as proof that a U.S. relative has legal responsibility for the child. Now she says the district is demanding that her sister take legal guardianship to keep her son in school.
We had to go to a lawyer and it cost $800 to give temporary guardianship to my sister" she says. I dont understand why some students can have a power of attorney but I need legal guardianship."
Until this year power of attorney was all the district required. Its a legal document that can be drawn up by a notary. After the bridge incident parents were told they had to provide more costly custody orders which require them to go to court and give up guardianship of their children.
After the meeting Campa explains that she lives in Ciudad Acua but her sister lives in Del Rio. Her 14-year-old son is a U.S. citizen. He attended private school in Del Rio but last year he begged to go to a public high school. We went through all of this because he wants to be with his friends and he loves American football" she says. The guardianship will expire in a year-and-a-half. I am wondering if well have to hire another lawyer and pay $800 all over again."
Outside the center Padilla the assistant city attorney hands me a manila folder filled with education case lawseven court rulings on Mexican Americans challenges to educational barriers in Del Rio dating back to 1928.
In the 1990s when he served as the education lawyer for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Padilla represented many families with residency issues. He sees the school districts actions this fall as the latest attempt to prevent Mexican-American kids from obtaining an education. If the district wanted to tackle a perceived problem with non-resident students he says the proper route would be to contact families of students whose residency looked sketchynot to conduct a roundup that was bound to reopen community wounds.
It really needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis" he says. You dont just make blanket statements and blast it out there in the newspaper and scare the whole community."
Folks in Del Rio were surprised to hear that Cooper had agreed to speak with me on the day after the community meeting. He turned down an interview with Univision you know" says Mike Perez the port director.
When I arrive Cooper is sitting at his computer dashing off an e-mail. At 6 feet 4 inches and 280 pounds with a shaved head and goatee he can be intimidating even behind a desk. Do I look mean?" he asks. I guess thats the advantage of being a former rugby player."
Cooper 49 scoffs at the notion that hes an outsider who doesnt understand the border culture. He grew up in El Paso and Las Cruces he points out and for two years served as the school superintendent in Tornillo 38 miles east of El Paso. Cooper then spent five years in Arizona from 2000 to 2005 as superintendent of the Nogales Unified School District. After that he worked briefly for the Arizona Department of Education before moving back to Las Cruces to care for his ailing mother and teach at the local university.
In November 2008 he was hired as superintendent in Del Rio.
Cooper has made wavesnot only with the residency crackdown but also when he refused to air President Barack Obamas September address to American schoolchildren. Hes won praise for fixing the districts troubled bilingual education program which the state had threatened to take over. For decades each school in Del Rio had taught bilingual education its own way and sometimes not at all. The districts 2000 primarily Spanish-speaking students had received English instruction on average about 10 percent of the time.
I capitalized on the momentum and progress already made by the previous superintendent" Cooper says. Now were giving students three hours of English a day so that they have sufficient time to learn a new language."
Cooper extols the virtues of Texas public schools. I have a very strong belief that Texas has the best school system in the country" he says leaning back in his chair. The Texas Education Agency has employed some of the sharpest people in the state."
Cooper appears to have imported at least one educational principle from Arizona: an overarching concern about Mexican nonresidents attending public schools. His former boss Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has been on a crusade for years to keep nonresidents out of his system. Under his tenure school employees have been sent to international bridges to videotape children. Theyve checked childrens residency before allowing them to board school buses.
Cooper supported Hornes approach. In 2004 when as superintendent in Nogales he told the Arizona Republic that he had turned away 50 students that year because he said they lived in Mexico. I think anyone who facilitates picking up kids from Mexico knowingly should be prosecuted for defrauding taxpayers" he said. At the local level everyone in one way or another subsidizes this illegal activity."
In Del Rio Cooper says it costs $4300 in state and local taxpayer money to educate each student. Using his figures the 20 children who never returned to school after the fliers were handed out in September saved the district $86000. Was it worth the trouble?
Some superintendents turn a blind eye because they dont want to be attacked by civil liberty groups" he says. Some turn a blind eye because they dont have the resources to police it. We have an obligation by definition of the law to establish whether or not some people are eligible to attend schools free of charge. If we dont do a reasonable job then we just foist the additional tax burden on local and state taxpayers."
If theres a concern about residency I ask why not send a letter home with students rather than set up a checkpoint?
I could do a lot of different things" Cooper says. I could also wait until a student breaks an arm or gets H1N1 and we need to isolate him and no one can find his parents."
We walk outside. Del Rio High School sits across the street from the superintendents office. As we talk a middle-aged Latina stops her pickup truck in the middle of the street and strides over.
I just want to thank you for everything youre doing" she tells Cooper pumping his hand enthusiastically. What you did at the bridge was the right thing. Americans cant be expected to pay for everything."
Her name is Enriqueta Eaton she says. Originally from Mexico City she has lived in Del Rio for 38 years. Back in the 70s she says her husband paid $35 a month so her four brothers and sisters from Mexico could attend school in Del Rio.
Eaton marches back to her truck. A line of motorists wait patiently behind her truck as she hoists herself back into the drivers seat. The school district no longer accepts tuition from students outside the district Cooper says. Hes thought about reviving the practice but says he hasnt received an answer from Austin.
Cooper jokes about the encounter with Eaton. I thought Oh no now Im going to get cussed out in front of reporters" he says.
Except for civil liberties groups and a few local attorneys he says most people in Del Rio have reacted as Eaton did. Hes received dozens of letters from people around the country congratulating him on preventing illegal immigrants" from taking advantage of U.S. taxpayers. Some of them want me to run for president" he says shaking his head. But this isnt about illegal immigrants. Im not the U.S. Border Patrol. I guess its the climate of politics nationally right now."
Cooper blames the local paper for blowing things out of proportion. This became a big deal because the local newspaper said we were turning away illegals. Thats what created the fervor" he says. I would be surprised if people didnt get their cackles up. Its clearly something that civil liberty groups would have a concern with because Plyler v. Doe was already heard in the U.S. Supreme Court and thats not something we can thumb our nose at."
Earlier in our interview Id asked Cooper what became of the 20 students who never returned after the checkpoint on the international bridge. He shrugged. I dont know where they went" he said.
Others cant help wondering. Attorney Schusheim says that shortly after the warnings were issued a 17-year-old student came into Texas RioGrande Legal Aid with his parents. The parents said they were headed to Minnesota to work and they planned to leave their son with a relative to attend school" she says. They were being told they needed a court-ordered guardianship."
After the process was explained to them the family told Schusheim they would come back for assistance. They were very afraid theyd lose their work opportunity" she says if they were delayed by legal proceedings.
Schusheim waited a few days but the family never returned. She called a relative of the family. Theyve moved on" he said.
Axochitzin Abrego a 15-year-old student at Del Rio High says she knows another student who never came back. First her brother disappeared and no one spoke about it" she says. I asked her where her brother was but she wouldnt tell me. The next week she was gone too.
It gives you a weird feeling" Abrego says because theyre just gone and no one talks about it."
a proper education" says Alpha Hernandez another attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Every year some children dont get registered. Ive seen children 7- or 8- years-old that have never attended school. We are already suffering from high unemployment and low educational achievement."
Cooper sees the issue as clear-cut. It was never a question of immigration status he says but of residency. If 200 children crossing at 6:30 on a Wednesday morning is not cause enough to be suspicious then I dont know what is" he says. No I guess they all have sick aunts because thats what a lot of them said.
We have a duty to be reasonable about this but to what degree we want to be reasonable can be argued."
While Coopers response appears to be unprecedented in Texas the broader issue is nothing new. For decades superintendents along the U.S.-Mexico border have struggled to ensure that Mexican students dont attend schools on the taxpayers dime. With families spanning both sides of the border determining who has the right to attend U.S. schools can be complex.
David Hinojosa a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal & Educational Defense Fund says he cannot recall similar checkpoints in the state. I think its outrageous" he says. If hes so concerned about residency why doesnt he go to the eastern or western boundaries of his county to see if any students are crossing into his school district?"
Kelt Coopers crackdown stirred up a passel of bad memories for Mexican Americans in Del Rio. Since the turn of the last century they have foughtsometimes with fists but more often through the legal systemto educate their children.
The nations first important school desegregation case for Mexican Americans was decided there in 1928. The Anglo ranchers who ran the city had barred Mexican-American students from attending a then-newly constructed school in Del Rio. The parents got together and said This is not right. We pay taxes. We helped build the school so our children should be able to attend" says Eloy Padilla an assistant city attorney. A district court agreed. The Court of Civil Appeals of Texas in Independent School District v. Salvatierra overturned the ruling.
The case galvanized Del Rios Mexican-American community which set its sights on improving its own schools. I dont think the superintendent is aware of how sensitive this town is" Padilla says. There are still some very raw nerves among a lot of us. Any semblance of prejudice or discrimination we are going to rise up and fight back. This town has been known to do that for more than 60 years. Weve never been known to sit back quietly."
On the surface Del Rio looks placid. With a current population of roughly 48000 it sits three miles north of the Rio Grande and retains a small-town quaintness despite the busy Laughlin Air Force Base on its outskirts. Farmers steer tractors down the main thoroughfare. People still greet one another by first names.
But 40 years ago Del Rio was sharply divided along racial lines. The San Felipe barrio south of the railroad tracks and closer to Mexico was populated almost exclusively by Mexican Americans. Anglos lived north of the tracks.
A slow and sometimes painful integration over the decades has blurred the old prejudices. Alpha Guzman a 55-year-old Del Rio native says that when she asks her 17-year-old grandson about the ethnicity of his friends he shrugs and says I dont know." She also recalls the time he asked about their ancestry. I told him We are Mexican. He said Oh granny that sounds ugly."
Guzman tells me this as she sits outside the Casa de la Cultura in San Felipe on a balmy November evening. The center is at the historical heart of the old Mexican-American neighborhood. About 50 yards away runs the picturesque San Felipe Creek once another barrier between Hispanics and Anglos. Elderly residents of San Felipe still tell tales of their youth when a vato from the barrio couldnt cross the creek bridge without suffering taunts and dodging rocks thrown by the gringos on the north side.
For Guzman and her peers Coopers actions looked like another volley in a battle theyve been fighting their whole lives. Guzman graduated high school in 1972 another infamous year in local history. During her senior year the San Felipe and Del Rio school districts were consolidated ending official segregation. Things grew so heated that year she recalls that police had to be stationed in the hallways to break up fistfights. Separate proms had to be organized.
The kids from San Felipe wanted to hear Mexican music" Guzman says. The Anglos wanted heavy metal music. We couldnt agree so we each got our own prom."
Fifteen years later she recalls the class of 72 still couldnt come together. For their 15th reunion we met at a bar in Mexico" says Guzman. And some of the Anglo students came in with a boom box and put in a heavy metal tape. One of our guys went out to his car and came back with his own cassette of Mexican music and put it in their boom box."
The owner ripped out the cassette. Anglo alumni stood up Guzman recalls and one said This reunion is over and then they walked out of the bar." There were no more reunions after that. I heard that they meet in Las Vegas now" Guzman says and hold their own reunion there."
Inside the cultural center Texas RioGrande Legal Aid has called a meeting to try to clear up the confusion about the school districts residency requirements. At least 65 people mostly parents and grandparents cram into a small meeting room on folding metal chairs. In an adjacent kitchen women prepare refried beans for chalupas and stir fruit punch that will be served after the meeting. Children strum Cielito Lindo in a guitar class next door.
Two months after the now-infamous flier incident some parents are still unsure what residency documents their children need. Others still wonder why they were asked to provide additional documentation when other families were not.
Maria Consuela Campa raises her hand with a question for Pedro Cruz the legal aid lawyer giving a PowerPoint presentation. Her sister lives in Del Rio she says and has power of attorney over her sona document formerly accepted by the district as proof that a U.S. relative has legal responsibility for the child. Now she says the district is demanding that her sister take legal guardianship to keep her son in school.
We had to go to a lawyer and it cost $800 to give temporary guardianship to my sister" she says. I dont understand why some students can have a power of attorney but I need legal guardianship."
Until this year power of attorney was all the district required. Its a legal document that can be drawn up by a notary. After the bridge incident parents were told they had to provide more costly custody orders which require them to go to court and give up guardianship of their children.
After the meeting Campa explains that she lives in Ciudad Acua but her sister lives in Del Rio. Her 14-year-old son is a U.S. citizen. He attended private school in Del Rio but last year he begged to go to a public high school. We went through all of this because he wants to be with his friends and he loves American football" she says. The guardianship will expire in a year-and-a-half. I am wondering if well have to hire another lawyer and pay $800 all over again."
