Despite the general lack of knowledge about the event, June 15th marks the 40th anniversary of an important event that impacted thousands of Latino school-age children in the United States. That is the group of Latino and immigrant parents in Texas who risked deportation to fight for their children’s right to attend public school in the 1970s. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1982 ruled in favor of the parents and sons.

In 1975, the state of Texas passed a statute allowing local school districts to deny enrollment to children who were not legally admitted in the country. Two years later, the Tyler Independent School District decided that it would charge annual tuition to students without legal documentation of residence. At $1,000 per student, this was far beyond the reach of many families who found themselves in that situation.

Supported by Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), “four families agreed to sue the Tyler school district, then headed by Superintendent James Plyler. While a judge allowed the families to present their case under the pseudonym of “Doe,” the parents were required to testify in open court. This was risky; on the day that they testified, the Lopez family drove to court with their car packed with their possessions, because they were afraid that they might be deported on the spot”, according to the NBC News.

The legal action known as Plyler vs. Doe ensured that children living in the US with no legal immigration documentation could access basic education and paved the way for young immigrants to become active and politicized in efforts to demand rights for children who have spent most of their lives in the US, such as the DREAM Act and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which turns 10 years old facing many difficulties.

Peter Roos, former national director of education litigation for MALDEF, said to NBC that: “When these families came forward to challenge the law, there was a real danger that people could find out their identities and harass them. To avoid media attention, the judge scheduled the parents’ testimony at the unheard-of hour of 6 a.m.”.

In 1978, the federal district judge found that Texas’ law was unconstitutional, and this ruling was upheld by an appeals court in 1980. By 1981, Peter Roos was part of the team that argued the Plyler case before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court upheld the Mexican-American families’ claim in June 1982. In that context, Justice William Brennan, expressing the majority opinion, declared that “by denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions”, and “foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our nation”.

The court held that “undocumented” children were entitled to Equal Protection under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, so the state of Texas could not deny them access to public education (K-12).

Other legal experts and educators say the Plyler case remains important and relevant today. According to Roberto G. Gonzales, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania said to NBC, “Its significance, in part, is that it allows undocumented children from Day One to be integrated into the legal framework of this country. They not only get an education, but they learn the culture and values of this country and are integrated into the fabric of their communities”.

In 2019, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that there were 133,000 undocumented children (ages 3-17) in Texas. Nationwide, the Pew Research Center has reported that there are roughly 675,000 undocumented children.

“More recently, in May this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that he would like to re-visit the Plyler case by potentially launching a challenge to it. MALDEF’s Saenz said that any such effort would be unlikely to succeed. He pointed out that Plyler (unlike Roe vs. Wade) has been incorporated into a federal statute”, NBC News informed.