On October 20 President Obama, through the Department of Education, took another heavy-booted step in unlawfully transforming America by announcing the release of a 63-page "resource guide" to help educators, school leaders and community organizations better support "undocumented youth," including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The "deferred action" does not create legal status, but DACA, which granted exemption from deportation to those who had entered the country illegally before age 16 was issued by Obama in 2012 and then in 2014 was expanded to extend, among other things, eligibility to age 31.
The announcement stated that the guide includes information for high school and college educators about "the rights of undocumented students"; tips on supporting "undocumented youth"; a list of private scholarships; "guidance for migrant students in accessing their education records for DACA"; and "information on federally-funded adult education programs and on non-citizen access to federal financial aid." An increasing number of documents coming in departmental mailings are in Spanish, as are the accompanying "Superintendent Dear Colleague Letter" and the "Higher Ed Dear Colleague Letter." There is little question about which "undocumented students" are being targeted.
The guide was presented as an "effort to ensure that all students have access to a world-class education that prepares them for college and careers." What it promises in reality is to create more new Democratic voters, stretch resources, and further degrade education. And it will surely add to the level of disapproval of Obama's immigration policies, which was at 60 percent last summer.
But most teachers, professors, and administrators are out-of-step with the American public and in-step with Obama's policies. They welcome the suggestions.
Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, and former provost at King's College and former associate provost at Boston University, says, "The resource guide will help [administrators] figure out the best ways to divert state and university resources to the cause." The federal government is following California, which especially has been on the forefront of the effort to treat illegal aliens as a privileged and desirable group of potential college enrollees.
Wood's observations are on target. At the 2009 annual meeting of the National Council for the Social Studies, teachers shared tips on indoctrinating young students about illegal aliens. In Georgia, administration-supported teach-ins were held on various campuses, including one in 2010, at Kennesaw State University (along with a number of more official-sounding ones). In 2012, the College of Education at Georgia State University held a "Teach-In on Tucson," to protest Arizona legislation (HB 2281) prohibiting the use of Raza Studies curricular materials that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government" or "promote resentment toward a race or a class of people." At the "teach-in," Dean Randy Kamphaus made opening remarks, and workshops offered tips for incorporating curriculum materials from the Zinn Education Project about Christopher Columbus's "genocide." Associate Professor Jennifer Esposito pledged to give "extra points" to students for letters to legislators asking them to vote against enforcement of immigration laws.
After attending this teach-in, I testified before the Judiciary Non-Civil Committee. President of the Georgia pro-enforcement group, the Dustin Inman Society, D.A. King, had warned me about the teachers and students that routinely pack hearing rooms. One of these professors had to be reprimanded by the chairman when she shouted out, accusing me of lying. In reply to inquiries from the committee, Dean Kamphaus stated that although Esposito had "pledged" to give the assignment, she had not in fact done so and that a memo reminding faculty of university policy had been sent out.
In 2013, the Association of Teacher Educators conference featured Bill Ayers as keynote speaker and a panel called "Immigration and Education: Critical Issues, Critical Times" with the director of a "Freedom University," the president of the Lawyers Guild, and two public high school teachers sharing tips on helping illegals.
For years, educators have been conspiring on ways to subvert federal immigration law. Now the Obama Department of Education is helping them.
The pro-illegal lobby has also been getting help from Republican lawmakers. In Georgia, a state with a larger population of illegal aliens than Arizona, the majority of citizens have been opposed to supporting illegal students. Yet, the Republican-controlled state government, which, according to King, is "run by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the 21st-century slavers in the Ag industry," voted to continue to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens.
"Increased special treatment in schools is only part of the story," he says.
But the radical pro-amnesty group La Raza is "in the White House–and making policy," says King. Cecilia Munoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council, lists her prior service as "Senior Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza …" on her White House bio. Ten years ago jokes were being made about putting La Raza in charge of enforcement.
The joke has become tragic fact. Even after Kate Steinle died at the hands of an illegal alien residing in the sanctuary city of San Francisco U.S. Senate Democrats killed a bill that would punish already illegal sanctuary cities.
Obama's directive to schools is part of a bigger plan: to mainstream illegal aliens and "set up an incremental action so that illegals are actually a special, protected class," says King. Illegal immigration will become a civil right, he predicts.
When breaking the law gets you special privileges, then you know that America is indeed being transformed.
Mary Grabar, Ph.D., taught college English for 20 years. She is now a resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. She founded the Dissident Prof Education Project, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) education reform initiative that offers information and resources for students, parents, and citizens. The motto, "Resisting the Re-Education of America," arose in part from her perspective as a very young immigrant from the former Communist Yugoslavia (Slovenia specifically). She writes extensively and is also a published poet and fiction writer. Ms. Grabar is a contributor to SFPPR News & Analysis.