HUNTSVILLE, AL - Two days after the judge's ruling on the immigration law - many Hispanic students around the Valley have been “no shows" in class.
The numbers vary from place to place, but in Huntsville, 14 percent of Hispanic students called out on Thursday. Eight percent were out on Friday. And some of those students say they're not coming back.
For Dayana Coria, this could be the last time she runs around the schoolyard at Huntsville's McDonnell Elementary, laughing and playing with her friends. She says, “My dad said that we are going to Mexico and we are going to have our own room, our own house, but I feel bad too because I'm going to miss my friends and my best teacher."
After portions of Alabama's immigration law took effect earlier this week, some of her friends and their families have already left.
Huntsville resident Elizabeth Evenes says, "Actually where I stayed, it was full of Mexicans. Now there's basically ten houses with Mexicans."
Elizabeth Evenes and her newborn are U.S. citizens. Several of her other relatives are illegal immigrants. Because of the law, she says they are packing up their bags and moving out of state.
Evenes went to McDonnell Elementary on Friday afternoon to pick up her niece: “We just withdrew her from school because we're leaving. And she's sad to go but we have no other choice."
The McDonnell students I spoke with seemed well aware of what's going on. Third Grader Yaneli Antonio says four out of the 19 students in her class didn't come to school. She explains, “Some Spanish people are moving to another state that doesn't have the law.”
McDonnell Elementary School isn't alone. Out of the nearly 1,500 Hispanic students in the Huntsville city school system, more than 200 have been absent.
Although the new law is meant to crack down on illegal immigration, school administrators also want to make sure it's properly understood.
First, only new students are required to prove their citizenship. Those already enrolled won't be impacted. Second, lawmakers say the citizenship information will be used for statistical purposes only. Privacy rights don't allow schools to identify undocumented students by name.
Still, for many of these kids, all the uncertainty and fear means that their days left at McDonnell Elementary are numbered.
