Twenty-three years ago on a hot August evening, I stood before the Anaheim Union High School District board of trustees. They were about to discuss whether to sue Mexico for $50 million and ask the country for an annual $10 million payment for educating the children of undocumented immigrants.
Children like me.
Board president Harald Martin, a native of Austria and the author of the proposal, blamed us for a supposedly degrading educational system in my hometown. He had even appeared on National Public Radio to compare Latino students to the small, furry critters from the "Star Trek" universe that once overwhelmed the Starship Enterprise.
