October 13, 2005 Sections A-C Hamblen County's Illegal Immigration Resolution

HAMBLEN COUNTY COMMISSION RESOLUTION

This is a copy of the information provided to all Hamblen County Commissioners at the October 10th meeting of the Public Services Committee regarding estimated costs incurred by the county in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 in relation to the education of illegal immigrant students.

The parts that will be sent to the U. S. Government (Senator Bill Frist and Senator Lamar Alexander and Congressman Bill Jenkins of Tennessee and others) are:

A. The Resolution
C. Itemized Costs.

Sections B,D,E, and F provide background information, data on additional costs, commentary on statements that have previously been made in opposition to the proposal, and figures that were requested of the Hamblen County Board of Education by Commissioner Tom Lowe. Only a part of Section B is shown here. See my post of October 10 "Illegal Immigration Resolution" to see the full document.

NOTE: Some of the information in the resolution was in a column format but may not appear in columns within this text. Hopefully, any information that was in a column format can be understood regardless.

“Send the ‘illegal immigration education’ bill to the US Government”

Contents:
A. Resolution
B. Background & Objective
C. Itemized Costs

Submitted by Commissioner Tom Lowe October, 2005

A. RESOLUTION

Whereas.....1. Hamblen County school expenses routinely exceed revenues, largely due to costs arising from education services rendered to students whose enrollment in Hamblen County schools is due to illegal immigration.

Whereas.....2. School enrollment data reveals the majority of students produced by illegal immigration are illegal aliens, unlawfully present in the United States.

Whereas.....3. Supreme Court case law in Plyler v. Doe requires Hamblen County to provide education services to all students whether their U.S. presence is lawful or unlawful.

Whereas…..4. Federal mandates requiring county payment for educational services to students in Hamblen County due to illegal immigration has precluded other county services, staff pay and benefits, as well as needed capital repair and maintenance.

Whereas......5. Local police departments receive federal reimbursement for the cost of arresting and jailing illegal aliens under the Department of Justice State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), requiring law enforcement to establish that the prisoner is an illegal alien.
Whereas......6. State prisons receive federal reimbursement for long-term incarceration of sentenced illegal alien prisoners, also requiring that the prisoner be identified as an illegal alien.
Whereas......7. Hospitals may obtain federal reimbursement of illegal aliens’ medical costs after establishing the patient’s illegal alien status.
Be It Resolved...That the Hamblen County Commission will send an invoice to the United States Government for educational costs due to illegal immigration, similar in principle to current reimbursement practices of local police, state prisons and hospitals.
Itemized costs are based on figures already submitted, accepted and paid by the Tennessee Dept of Education for services rendered during the school years 2002-03 and 2003-04. Student counts will be taken from enrollment in Title 1, Part C Migrant Education Program, because the occupations qualifying a “migrant” student (agriculture, migratory, temporary or seasonal agricultural workers, migratory dairy workers, fishing or migratory, temporary or seasonal fishing (8)) are routinely identified by government officials as performed by illegal aliens because “they do the jobs Americans won’t do.”
In addition to the calculated local contribution to the established PPE (Per Pupil Expenditure) will be included costs of operating two federal programs: (a) Title 1, Part C Migrant Education Program and(b) Title III, English as a Second Language. Only costs of programs directly resulting from students enrolled in Hamblen County Schools as a result of illegal immigration will be included.
An example is the free breakfast & free lunch program. Many “illegal immigration” students are on the free meal program but can’t be distinguished from other students. For that reason, the costs of such programs won’t be included in this resolution and invoice. Sections A & C (Resolution and Itemized Cost Statement), itemized by year and based on Tennessee DOE figures, will be sent to Washington DC offices of our federal legislators: Senator Bill Frist, Senator Lamar Alexander and Congressman Bill Jenkins.
B. BACKGROUND. As with other U.S. local governments, illegal immigration has been disastrous to Hamblen County’s finances, especially with education costs. One indicator of “illegal immigration” is the count of “English-Language Learner” and Migrant students:

Year---Migrant(ii)---ELL (i)---ELL/Hispanic---Hispanic Only (i)----All (i)
99-00------------------193-----------71%-------------272 (3.0%)--------9,015
00-01----198----------275----------71%-------------385 (4.2%)---------9,121
01-02--- 200----------253----------55%-------------458 (5.0%)---------8,995
02-03--- 503----------355----------54%-------------659 (6.9%)---------9,602
03-04--- 973 (iii)-----496----------65%-------------760 (7.8%)---------9,729
04-05--- 744 (iii)----563 (ii) 300% increase in 5 years!
05-06--- 650 (ii) Projected
C. ITEMIZED COST STATEMENT
PPE = Per Pupil Expenditure Hamblen County Direct Contribution (6)

School Year 2002-03 (PPE = $6369) 44.7% of PPE Total
Migrant Count (1)--------503 x -----------$ 2,847----------------------- $1,432,041
School Year 2003-04 (PPE = $6448) 43.8% of PPE Total
Migrant Population (11)-973 x -----------$ 2,824---------------------- $2,747,752

Total Selected Hamblen County Direct Costs------------ $ 4,179,793