We do not normally use photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, for copyright reasons, but this one is too important. For a newspaper which editorially supports significant immigration, maybe a picture of demonstrators in support of illegal immigrants might have thought harder about an image with three signs in Spanish.

Philly schools’ immigrant student population is booming. Advocates want the district to recommit to ‘sanctuary schools.’

The population of English learners in the Philadelphia School District is on the rise. Superintendent Watlington says he’s committed to ensuring students feel safe.

by Kristen A Graham | Monday, December 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST

At Franklin Learning Center, Michelle Ferguson’s students, all new arrivals to the U.S., are worried.

With President-elect Donald Trump promising stricter immigration laws and mass detention and deportation of immigrants, many students at the Philadelphia School District high school that draws English learners from around the city have shared their fears with Ferguson and other staff.

“Ultimately, I think students haven’t heard from the schools or from the school district since the election,” said Ferguson, who leads the newcomer academy for immigrant students at FLC. “Their anxiety is so heightened. They feel so alone. The silence on the topic from the district — the biggest and most powerful organization that many of our families have access to — is really disappointing.”

The district in 2021 adopted a “sanctuary schools” stance, reaffirming its policy to protect immigrant students and families from inquiries by federal immigration authorities, as well as committing to provide more training for staff and emotional support for immigrant students.

A “sanctuary schools” stance, huh? Translation: an obstruction of justice stance! And organization, and any individual, who hides illegal immigrants, or withholds documents and information pertaining to federal law enforcement and immigration crimes is obstructing justice, and is a felony. If under the incoming Administration, some Philadelphia School officials try to “protect immigrant students and families from inquiries by federal immigration authorities,” they can be convicted, and depending on the specific nature of the offense, can be sent to federal prison. Do that to a few of the officials, and the rest will fall in line.

How much do illegal immigrants and their children, some of whom may have been born in the United States and are American citizens, cost the City of Brotherly Love?

The school system’s English learner population is expanding quickly: They constitute nearly 23% of the district’s 117,956 students, a key driver of the system’s first enrollment gain in a decade.

The city planned on spending $22,379 per student in 2023-24. Doing the math, that’s 27,130 non-native English speaking students, times $22,379 per student, which equals $607,139,585 that the city spends on those students. That’s a lot of money which could be used for a lot of different things in the Commonwealth, or returned to the taxpayers. With the city’s public schools looking at a so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ as the federal covidiocy dollars dry up — did you know that stuff still existed? — savings are needed.

Let’s tell the truth here: despite his campaign promises, President Trump will not be able to round up and deport every illegal immigrant in the country. Enforcement needs to be prioritized on getting rid of the violent criminals first, and even that more limited job will probably take up longer than Mr Trump’s four years in office.

But one thing that is desperately needed is breaking this ‘sanctuary’ bovine feces. Immigration is a strictly federal responsibility, which our good friends on the left succeeded in pushing when they ended Lou Baretta’s and the city of Hazleton’s local efforts to address the problem of illegals in the municipality. The left got their wish: the Supreme Court affirmed that the feds controlled immigration. So, the Department of Justice can start enforcing those laws, and I will be more than pleased if we start seeing these good, well-meaning American citizens trying to protect illegal immigrants going to prison.