The official curriculum at a Texas school district teaches students that strengthened immigration laws to secure the southern border are part of a “system of oppression” targeting Mexican Americans, according to documents obtained through public records request.
The politically-charged message was part of a high school class called “Advanced Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies,” at the Round Rock Independent School District just outside of Austin. The goal of the class, according to the documents, is for students to be able to “describe how significant events from 1975 to present have strengthened systems of oppression against Mexican Americans, such as the strengthened immigration laws that made immigration from Mexico harder.”
Parents Defending Education
The school district’s portrayal of immigration restriction as an act of oppression comes as the United States, and Texas in particular, grapples with an unprecedented surge of illegal migrants at the southern border, with about 9 million nationwide encounters and 1.7 million estimated gotaways since Biden took office.
The term “illegal immigrant,” which Biden was forced to apologize for using in his State of the Union address, is also deemed unacceptable by the liberal school district.
“The terms ‘illegal’ and ‘undocumented’ are often used to describe individuals who have entered or are residing in a country without proper legal authorization,” the lesson plan says. “However, these terms can carry negative connotations and may perpetuate stereotypes.”
A quote featured in the lesson from poet Luis Alberto Urrea labels the term “illegal alien” as “a term by which an invading colonial force vilifies Indigenous cultures by identifying them as an invading colonial force.”
Parents Defending Education
Parents Defending Education, an education watchdog which obtained the documents through records request, said the “curriculum is at odds with American values, as well as truth and facts.”
“Forcing students to sit through history courses dedicated to teaching through the lens of oppressor and oppressed is an effort to hijack the English language to manipulate and indoctrinate our most vulnerable in public schools,” Caroline Moore, its Vice President, told The Daily Wire.
The curriculum praises a leftist activist organization called Jolt Action, which openly advocates for amnesty for illegal immigrants. “The criminalization of undocumented immigrants and the demonization of those who come to this country seeking a better future must end,” Jolt Action’s website reads.
“Those in power should reflect Texas’ demographic truth: The majority of us are people of color, half of us are women, many of us are LGBTQ+, and most of us make less than $29,000 a year,” Jolt action states, also calling on politicians to be “truly accountable” to “la raza.”
The curriculum documents go on to identify forms of “resistance and liberation,” with another learning goal for the class being for students to be able to “describe how significant events from 1975 to present have resisted systems of oppression against Mexican Americans, such as DACA and Texas Dreamers Act,” referring to a policy that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the United States if they were brought to the country illegally as children.
“No student should go to school and learn that an illegal immigrant is actually in the right and law-abiding citizens are oppressing them,” Moore charged. “This district needs to be investigated immediately. Can you imagine what else they’re teaching students?”
Round Rock Independent School District did not respond to a request for comment.