There are crops in the field. Half of the classrooms were empty. State economies are losing money.

Federal scrutiny of local law enforcement

If Gov. Greg Abbott continues to target the immigrants with policies and rhetoric that some say violate their constitutional rights, Texas could face that.

On May 4, the governor said he would like to revisit the Supreme Court decision in the 1982 case. States can't refuse students based on their immigration status.

The expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when the case was first brought.

It is not clear if the governor will continue to single out these children after the May 24 tragedy in Uvalde, a small, predominantly Hispanic community about 80 miles from the Mexican border. The 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Customs and Border Patrol team.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it is no longer trying to find out who is in the community because it is now safe after the Uvalde shooting.

We Wring our hands and do nothing.

Many calls and emails have not been returned. He didn't change his stance after the El Paso Wal-mart shooting.

With a Supreme Court decision that could potentially change the course of history, some advocates are worried that the governor's earlier rhetoric about students could become reality.

Michael Tafelski is a senior supervising attorney for children's rights at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Pryler has been a Supreme Court precedent for a long time. In June, we will be celebrating the anniversary. We hope the court doesn't lose sight of precedent.

Using schools to capture undocumented parents

More than a decade ago, similar measures were enacted in Arizona and Alabama. The trust between undocumented immigrants and two of the most critical institutions in their communities, law enforcement and schools, is broken.

The financial toll has been huge.

In April 2010 Arizona enacted some of the most extreme anti-immigration policies in the country. The "show me your papers" provision, which required people to provide proof of legal immigration status during routine traffic stops, was struck down after a long time.

Children are affected by harsh anti-immigration practices when they are in the womb. The 2008 Postville raid was linked to premature births for the women caught in it.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in children can be caused by large scale dragnets. Some of the impact is state specific, according to researchers.

Hispanic students were more likely to reduce their physical activity due to anti-immigration measures in Arizona.

Cesar L. Escalante is a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Georgia. They don't intend to harm legal residents with their immigration policies.

Former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio (Getty Images)

Perhaps no county was more notorious for its treatment of Hispanics than Maricopa, home to Joe Arpaio. For years, his armed and sometimes drunken volunteer posse rounded up Hispanic looking men and women in terrifying raids that often ensnared those who lived in the country legally.

Law enforcement agents would target schools in communities with large immigrant populations in an effort to capture parents, a tactic that discouraged parents from visiting campus to advocate for their children, and sometimes made them pull their kids from school.

A staff attorney with The Immigrant Legal Resource Center said that schools are often a place where families feel safe. It's difficult to rebuild those relationships.

A court order against the practice of targeting Latino drivers was ignored by the US Justice Department. The resulting litigation and reforms cost taxpayers more than $200 million even though he was pardoned by Donald Trump.

The state lost hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenue. The Center for American Progress found that if the anti-immigration measures remained in place, it would shrink Arizona's economy by almost 50 billion dollars.

Sheer terror

House Bill 56 was enacted in Alabama and emptied farms of their workers, construction sites of their day laborers and classrooms of their children.

The former head of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama said it was terrifying. The people didn't know what to do. The office was full of people waiting in line. This was going on for a long time. The families we were helping had a lot of angst and fear.

Teachers lectured to empty chairs as schools tried to make students feel welcome while also complying with the new regulations.

There were a lot of absences in the school. The children just weren't there.

Those without papers were not allowed to work, rent apartments, access utilities or apply for state identification cards. Local religious groups were enraged by the provision that made it a crime to harbor or transport the illegal immigrants.

To rid the state of these children as a cost-saving measure, administrators were required to report the immigration status of students and their parents to the federal government.

Micky Hammon, the majority leader of the Alabama House, said in 2011 that they want to accomplish their mission. We don't want illegal immigrants to come to Alabama and we don't want them to put down roots.

He was sentenced to prison for conversion of campaign contributions to personal use.

Unscrupulous students were not allowed to enroll in or attend state college or receive financial aid.

It cost the state billions of dollars, according to economists. Similar measures were passed by Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina.

Cesar L. Escalante (University of Georgia)

Policy makers don't think about the economic impact of their proposals Immigration-related restrictions that took hold around the Great Recession, which were supposed to open up jobs for American citizens, failed to attract native-born workers.

Politicians are less informed if they are ignorant of their own schemes.

He said that the public would only form an opinion based on political convictions.

We grow up proud to be Texan

The federal government should cover the cost of educating students who aren't citizens. His immigration policies are often seen as a financial burden. Research shows otherwise.

For every dollar Texas spent on the undocumented, they provided $1.21 in revenue, according to a study done in May 2020.

Gov. Greg Abbott wants the federal government to cover the cost of educating unauthorized students in public schools.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security doesn't know how many people are in the country without a visa.

In the state's K-12 public schools, there were over one hundred thousand illegal students. The state of Texas spent over one billion dollars on students that year.

It's not clear if these students are growing in number. In Texas, the number of students served fell from 5,431,910 in the previous year to 5,361,586 in the current year.

The valedictorian of her high school class who recently earned her bachelor's degree in engineering from a state university is worried about what will happen in Texas. She said that Abbott didn't care about students like her.

The teen, who asked not to be identified because of her immigration status, said that most of the children that already live here have no idea that they're not citizens. We grow up being proud to be Texan, dreaming of one day supporting our family and community, only to realize that our state doesn't claim us. Texas will lose future trade specialists, engineers, technicians, nurses and so many more professionals that have no other choice but to succeed if the opportunity to obtain an education is ripped away. There is only one way to succeed.

Federal attention has been given to Texas's anti- immigration measures. More than $1 billion in federal COVID aid was routed to the controversial program, which is under scrutiny by the Treasury Department.

The governor has already been sued over its validity and at least one case has been dismissed after a judge found a man's arrest unconstitutional.

Adding to the tension, Abbott is considering declaring an "invasion" on the Mexican border, a move that would give him authority to use state personnel to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Alison Parker (Human Rights Watch)

The managing director of the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch stated that Texas has risen to the top of her group's concerns. She said that Abbott's agenda was contrary to universal human rights that apply to all people.

The nation seemed poised to remove a Trump-era health provision that has kept tens of thousands of asylum seekers south of the border for years even as immigration regulations were just softened for Ukrainian and Russian refugees. Biden was prevented from lifting the order by a federal judge.

Despite the fact that the country is legally obligated to feed these children, the governor of Texas decided to bus them to D.C.

Abbott restricted ground transportation for those who have crossed into the country illegally, directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop, reroute or impound any vehicle suspected of being used to drive them.

Abbott issued a disaster declaration for dozens of counties due to the claim that illegal immigrants pose an ongoing and imminent threat of widespread damage, injury and loss of life and property. The home of Texas's most recent massacre was among them.

Natural disasters are usually the reason for such a declaration. His January 2020 announcement to federal authorities that the state would not participate in the refugee resettling program was followed by the move.

In California, Abbott's tough-on-immigration stance backfired as it did in the short term. The 1990s-era anti-immigration legislation, which included denying public education to undocumented students, is believed to have helped turn the once-GOP state blue.

The Hispanic population in Alabama has grown since the new laws were enacted.

Carlos E. Alemn said that even with the best efforts of the elected officials, people keep on coming. They can still build families here. The community is very strong. They are able to make lives for themselves despite the conditions.