The Department of Justice has requested that school superintendents in Alabama release enrollment data that could reveal whether Latino students have stopped attending classes in the wake of recent immigration legislation. HB56, which passed the Alabama legislature this June, allows law enforcement officials to check a person’s immigration status based during routine traffic stops or arrests. Initially it also required schools to report children who are in the U.S. illegally, but despite the fact this aspect of the law has been put on hold, there is evidence that many children have been staying home this academic year. Dan Carsen, senior reporter at WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, speaks about the law’s implications and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange’s possible strategies for dealing with the Department of Justice’s request.
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