Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, addresses a crowd at Glen Iris Elementary (Tamika Moore / Birmingham News)The U.S. Department of Justice is concerned that Alabama's immigration law has made schools "less safe and welcoming" for Hispanic students and may have led 13.4 percent of those students to withdraw from school in the course of several months.
That's according to a four-page letter dated May 1 from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to Alabama school Superintendent Tommy Bice. The letter was made public Thursday and was first reported by CNN.
The DOJ reviewed data provided by the state school system in April as part of an ongoing review to determine whether Alabama's contested immigration law complies with federal civil rights laws, Perez wrote.
In the course of that review, the DOJ found that the law "diminished access to and quality of education for many of Alabama's Hispanic children, resulted in missed school days, chilled or prevented the participation of parents in their children's education, and transformed the climates of some schools into less safe and welcoming spaces for Hispanic children," Perez wrote.
Between the start of the 2011-12 school year and February 2012, 13.4 percent of Hispanic students withdrew from Alabama schools. There was also a substantial increase in absences among Hispanics after the law's passage, while attendance numbers for other students remained about the same, Perez wrote.
In a news statement issued Friday in response, Bice wrote that state schools took steps to prevent provisions of the state's immigration law from driving away students, but those measures were not needed because a federal judge enjoined portions of the law.
Bice also noted that schools were advised that "all students would be enrolled" and coded as either "enrolled with a birth certificate" or "enrolled without a birth certificate" as required by the law. Bice added: "At no time would this reporting include personally identifiable information."
"Any negative effect on student attendance or withdrawal was minimized by applying this process to all students and only those enrolling after Sept. 1, 2011, which was several weeks after the official beginning of the school year," Bice wrote in an emailed statement.
However, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in October blocked the section of Alabama's immigration law asking schools to track immigration information about new students and those measures were not needed.
One of the bill's authors, State Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, told CNN he believes it is important for the state to check students' legal status.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with collecting the data, and I think the courts will agree," CNN quoted Beason as saying.
The DOJ fears the law has had effects beyond attendance, Perez wrote.
Although 98.7 percent of Alabama's Hispanic K-12 students are U.S. citizens, with 98.3 percent having been born in the U.S., the law made those students "feel unwelcome in schools they had attended for years," Perez wrote.
"Hispanic students further reported being singled out to receive notices or attend assemblies" about the state law, Perez wrote. "Hispanic children reported increased anxiety and diminished concentration in school, deteriorating grades, and increased hostility, bullying, and intimidation."
Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, issued a statement saying the SPLC is "disappointed, but not surprised, that the Alabama Department of Education's own data shows the civil rights of many children in our state are being violated, and we are thankful the federal Civil Rights Division is continuing its investigation. Even current legislation, the so-called reform bills, fails to make enough substantive changes to the law, and these students' access to school will continue to be chilled."
A bill currently before the state Legislature would make changes to the immigration law -- including preventing school officials from asking children about their parents' place of birth or immigration status.
Gov. Robert Bentley's spokeswoman, Jennifer Ardis, wrote in an email that Bentley supports those changes and is committed to upholding the essence of the immigration law.
"However, the governor does not believe that teachers or school administrators should be acting as immigration enforcement officers, and the revised version of HB 56 (the bill that carried the immigration law) that the governor supports would clarify that point," she wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.