the state Board of Education approved a proposal<\/a> that would require public school districts in Oklahoma to ask parents for proof of citizenship before they enroll their kids. The proposal now heads to the Republican-led Legislature, but if lawmakers sign off, the governor has said he\u2019ll veto it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRyan Walters, the state school superintendent, is a staunch supporter of Trump who has been outspoken nationally about working with the federal government to further the administration\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo be clear, I will always stand with President Trump and enforce his executive orders, especially when it comes to illegal immigration and the cost to our schools,\u201d he said Thursday at the beginning of a contentious board meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, Walters blasted his critics in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe position that they are taking is we can\u2019t ask questions on how much taxpayers are spending on folks that are in the country illegally,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s absurd. This is about transparency. It\u2019s about being a watchdog for taxpayer dollars, and it\u2019s about ensuring that our schools have the resources and personnel to make sure every kid gets a great education.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt ousted three board members weeks before, replacing them with his own allies. He said the board was involved in \u201cneedless political drama.\u201d Stitt insisted he supports Trump\u2019s immigration policies but thinks Walters is going too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard President Trump say, \u2018I\u2019m going to go pick on kids, and I\u2019m going to go into a school,\u2019\u201d Stitt said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019ve heard him talk about criminal elements and getting them out of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, undocumented immigrants are scared. In Oklahoma City, NBC News spoke with an undocumented woman from Guatemala who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery child has a right to go to school,\u201d she said. But she added she\u2019s terrified of her son\u2019s being rounded up in class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Across the country, the fight over illegal immigration could soon spill over into classrooms as conservative local and state officials seek to help the Trump administration in its crackdown. Besides Oklahoma, rules or bills have been introduced in the legislatures of at least four other states that seek to restrict undocumented children from attending public school for free or require proof of students\u2019 or their parents\u2019 citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision held that children are entitled to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. But decades later, with a much more conservative high court, the proposed bills appear to be testing that legal precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Texas, a Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow public schools to charge the families of undocumented children tuition to attend \u2014 unless the federal government stepped in to cover the costs. The idea mirrors one put forward by the Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Indiana, a proposed bill would allow school districts to prevent immigrant children from enrolling if school officials determined by \u201ca preponderance of the evidence\u201d that the children weren\u2019t present in the United States legally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tennessee\u2019s Legislature is considering two measures. One set of bills would require students to prove they are U.S. citizens by producing birth certificates or other approved documents. Without that, families could enroll their children only if they paid school districts what they would usually spend per student. Another set of bills would allow school districts and charter schools to refuse to enroll any child who is \u201cunlawfully present\u201d in the United States. That would be likely to sweep up a larger category of children, such as those with temporary protected status that has expired or whose families overstayed their visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In New Jersey, a Republican lawmaker introduced legislation that would allow school districts to charge children tuition if they couldn\u2019t prove their citizenship or legal immigration status. It has virtually no chance of passing in a state where Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature, as well as the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Melissa Luj\u00e1n, an immigration attorney in Oklahoma City, said her office started getting more calls from its clients as soon as the school board approved the proposal last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now we have clients that are absolutely terrified of going to immigration appointments [or] going to doctors\u2019 offices,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re just literally worried to leave their houses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The school board\u2019s proposal heads next to the Republican-led Legislature. Stitt said that even if lawmakers were to approve it, he\u2019d veto it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe thing that worries me most is that kids are not going to enroll in school,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said. \u201cAnd when kids are at school, they\u2019re not going to feel safe \u2014 and that\u2019s not good for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 A messy fight over President Donald Trump\u2019s policies is exploding into public view here as members of the Republican Party argue among themselves over how far is too far in helping the federal government enforce immigration laws. Last month, the state Board of Education approved a proposal that would require public school districts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5781],"tags":[7670,5124,1214,32508,1425],"class_list":["post-39095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-citizenship","tag-disagreement","tag-immigration","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39097,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39095\/revisions\/39097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}