Understanding Plyler's Legacy: Voices from Border Schools

The case, in which the Court held that the state could not deny undocumented immigrant children a free primary and secondary public education on the basis of their legal status, is widely regarded as the high water mark in the Court's immigrants' rights jurisprudence.2 The judge who heard the case at the district court level, Judge William Wayne Justice, considers it his greatest triumph, given the countless children who have received an education as a direct result of the holding.3 Surely Justice Brennan would smile-or at least breathe a sigh of relief-to know that the case is still good law twenty-five years after he wrote the narrow 5-4 majority opinion. The case has come under repeated attack through the years, most notably in 1994 when California passed Proposition 187, which attempted to bar undocumented immigrants from a variety of public services, including public education, and in 1996, when Congress considered federal legislation to reverse Plyler, known as the Gallegly Amendment.10 Neither of these efforts was ultimately successful,11 but efforts to overturn the decision continue to this day.12 The periodic grounds wells of opposition to the case and the ongoing vulnerability of the population it protects make its twenty-fifth anniversary a delicate and even contentious societal moment rather than an event marked by celebration.