CONGRESSMAN Jared Polis 2nd DISTRICT OF COLORADO

The federal government may be able to do more than just sue states that enact harsh immigration laws. Twenty-four House Democrats are urging the Education Department and the Justice Department to use “any and all enforcement mechanisms available” to ensure that immigrant students — legal and illegal — are not denied access to public schools, as required under a 1982 Supreme Court ruling.

In a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday, the lawmakers said that state laws designed to curb illegal immigration violate the constitutional right of all children to have equal access to schools.

The letter is a shot in the arm of sorts to the administration, urging it to get creative in assessing all the ways that state immigration laws could harm children in schools—and then find ways to stop it from happening.

The House Democrats’ letter cites Alabama's recently enacted immigration law, considered one of the harshest in the country. The statute’s provision requiring Alabama public schools to determine the immigration status of students has “the pernicious effect of deterring children of minority communities from accessing the classroom,” the letter charges.

A federal Appeals Court has temporarily enjoined the school provision of the Alabama law, but absentee rates for Hispanic students are still climbing in the state, the letter said. Fear plays a big part in Hispanic parents' decisions about whether to send their children to school. In Arizona, which enacted the first state immigration-enforcement law, Hispanics immediately began pulling their kids out of school, even though the statute didn’t affect the public school system, according to school officials. In many cases, whole families left Arizona, their decisions based largely on misinformation about the law.

The letter to Duncan was spearheaded by Reps. Jared Polis of Colorado, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and George Miller of California, who is a ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Miller and Polis both have close ties to the Education Department and are active in education discussions. In addition to Grijalva, several other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus signed on as well.

The Justice and Education departments have already filed suit against Alabama for its immigration law, arguing that the statute is unconstitutional because it impinges on federal immigration-enforcement responsibilities. The complaint also says that children will be denied access to schools because their parents won’t be able to provide the documentation and attestations that the law calls for.

The Democrats’ letter urges the Education Department to go beyond its lawsuit in the Alabama case by reiterating to all public schools their responsibilities under the Supreme Court's ruling in 1982 Plyler v. Doe, which dictates that a state may not deny access to public education to any child residing in the state, regardless of immigration status. The letter also pushes the department to assess the potential impact of the Alabama law on Hispanic enrollment in public schools so that it can be used as evidence to combat other state laws that could crop up later.