Philadelphia Prides Itself on Being a Sanctuary City, but Migrants Complain the City is Letting Them Down
Philadelphia declared itself a sanctuary for illegal aliens in 2016, and the city boasts that “More undocumented immigrants live in Philadelphia than in any of the largest Northeast American cities, except New York City.” More are arriving all the time under the Biden administration’s open-borders policies.
Suffice it to say that if there are any benefits or protections that can be lavished on illegal aliens, the City of Brotherly Love can be counted on to lavish it. The city has even gone so far as to establish an Amazon Migrant Welcome Center – Wish List, asking citizens to purchase dozens of items that newly arriving migrants might need. And yet, the droves of migrants who have flocked to Philadelphia say they aren’t feeling the love. They feel let down and are demanding that Philadelphia up its game.
The problems stem from the fact that Philadelphia’s boundless generosity toward illegal aliens cannot be matched by its resources. As migrants continue to pour into Philadelphia from all over the world, speaking 157 different languages (as of 2019), the city’s schools are failing to keep up with the demand for bilingual educators, translators and other services. In fact, the Philadelphia City School District is just failing generally. Only 24 percent of elementary school students are reading at or above grade level, and only 15 percent can do math at their grade level. Overall, only 21 percent of Philadelphia public high school students are considered college ready.
Advocates for the migrants accuse the Board of Education of not living up to a “welcoming sanctuary schools” resolution it unanimously approved in 2021. Among other things, that resolution called for “language equity, improved cultural instruction and other educational justice reforms,” in Philadelphia schools. Ironically, given that three-fourths of Philadelphia kids can’t read at grade level and 85 percent are behind in math, they may actually be fulfilling their promise of equity by underserving migrants as well.
One recently arrived migrant parent complains about a “lack of translation services in official school meetings that makes her feel unwelcome.” The Philadelphia public school system is educating about 23,000 “English learners,” but only employs 131 bilingual counseling assistants, or just one such employee for every 176 non-English-speaking students. The same mother laments that the schools have failed to “make her aware of the resources available to her as a member of a newcomer family.”
Despite being an equal opportunity failure, Philadelphia has scraped together the resources to set up two “newcomer” high schools where migrants are supposed to receive “an accelerated course of study and unique support so that they can get up to speed with their peers.” However, one migrant advocate complains that “the district defines students who have ‘recently arrived’ as those who have come to the country within the past year. But that’s often far from enough time to learn a new language, get caught up on classwork, and feel integrated into their schools.”
A local advocacy group, Juntos, argues that the already struggling school district should expand the newcomer definition to “any students who have recently arrived (within the last three years) to the United States, and may include but are not limited to: asylees, refugees, unaccompanied youth, undocumented youth, migratory students, and other immigrant children and youth.”
While no one in city government or the educational system would admit it, the struggles of the Philadelphia public school system provide a “textbook” example of why we have immigration laws and why they should be enforced, rather than undermined. Immigration laws – at least in theory – are an acknowledgment that immigrants (legal and illegal) are human beings who arrive here with human needs. When the influx becomes excessive and unmanageable, we fail both the immigrants and the native population – particularly the most disadvantaged, like those who comprise the majority of the Philadelphia public school student body.
To be clear, there are many reasons why Philadelphia and other big city school systems are failing. But logic would suggest that policies that welcome illegal aliens to settle in their jurisdiction only add to these problems.