Feds Say They Have 'Express Authority' to Investigate AL Schools Over

The Justice Department on Friday told Alabama’s
attorney general that it has the “express authority” to investigate
potential federal civil rights violations in Alabama’s public schools
authorized by the state’s controversial new immigration law.

Assistant US Attorney General Thomas Perez informed Alabama Attorney
General Luther Strange of the federal government’s powers two days after
Strange requested that the Justice Department cite what legal authority
it had to collect enrollment data on Hispanic students in his state’s
public schools.

“The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is tasked with
investigating potential violations of civil rights laws that protect
educational opportunities for schoolchildren,” Perez wrote in a letter.
“We know that the longstanding legal tradition in this country of
ensuring the right to attend school without being subject to
discrimination on any impermissible ground is as critically important to
you, as the Attorney General of the State of Alabama, as it is to the
Civil Rights Division.”

The Justice Department initially requested the enrollment information at
Alabama public schools Monday after receiving complaints that the
state’s immigration law may violate federal anti-discrimination statutes
related to education.

But Luther advised the state’s school superintendent to decline to
handover the data because of the ongoing litigation over the immigration
law.

Subjects:  Illegal immigration, Alabama, Dept of Justice, HB 56

Read more at AliPac