Tancredo Calls Out DPS Over Hiring Teachers Who Aren’t Legal Residents

Article publisher: 
CBS 4
Article date: 
15 April 2014
Article category: 
Colorado News
Medium
Article Body: 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo is calling for the superintendent of Denver Public Schools to resign over a program that allows for the hiring of teachers who came to the country illegally.

The program is part of a directive from the Obama administration called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg says the district was the first school system in the nation to hire teachers under the program.

One of those teachers is Kareli Lizárraga, a seventh-grade English teacher at the STRIVE Preparatory School’s Sunnyside campus ...

“I feel very much a part of this country and I’ve been living in this country since I was four,” she told CBS4

Lizárraga, 22, is an undocumented immigrant [illegal alien]. She came to the United States from Mexico as a child and excelled in the classroom ...

Many of Lizárraga’s students are also undocumented [illegal] (as are many students in the DPS system as a whole) ...

Tancredo says there are countless unemployed teachers in the country who are legal residents. He says hiring teachers who are not U.S. citizens is a slap in the face.

“It’s a terrible idea and I think Boasberg should actually resign after making such a stupid decision,” Tancredo said. “In what other kind of profession are we going to look for people who are here illegally first before we look for a legal citizen of this country..."

Lizárraga is one of two teachers at DPS who was hired through DACA. More are expected to be hired next year.

 


CAIRCO Research

DACA illegal alien teachers in public schools

DREAMers and DACA - Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals