OKLAHOMA CITY — A messy fight over President Donald Trump’s 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, 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 even if lawmakers sign off, the governor has said he’ll veto it.
Ryan 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’s agenda.
“To 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,” he said Thursday at the beginning of a contentious board meeting.
Later, Walters blasted his critics in an interview.
“The position that they are taking is we can’t ask questions on how much taxpayers are spending on folks that are in the country illegally,” he said. “That’s absurd. This is about transparency. It’s about being a watchdog for taxpayer dollars, and it’s about ensuring that our schools have the resources and personnel to make sure every kid gets a great education.”
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt ousted three board members weeks before, replacing them with his own allies. He said the board was involved in “needless political drama.” Stitt insisted he supports Trump’s immigration policies but thinks Walters is going too far.
“I’ve never heard President Trump say, ‘I’m going to go pick on kids, and I’m going to go into a school,’” Stitt said in an interview. “I’ve heard him talk about criminal elements and getting them out of our country.”
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.
“Every child has a right to go to school,” she said. But she added she’s terrified of her son’s being rounded up in class.
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’ or their parents’ citizenship.
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.
In Texas, a Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow public schools to charge the families of undocumented children tuition to attend — unless the federal government stepped in to cover the costs. The idea mirrors one put forward by the Heritage Foundation.
In Indiana, a proposed bill would allow school districts to prevent immigrant children from enrolling if school officials determined by “a preponderance of the evidence” that the children weren’t present in the United States legally.
Tennessee’s 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 “unlawfully present” 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.
In New Jersey, a Republican lawmaker introduced legislation that would allow school districts to charge children tuition if they couldn’t 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’s office.
Melissa Luján, 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.
“Right now we have clients that are absolutely terrified of going to immigration appointments [or] going to doctors’ offices,” she said. “They’re just literally worried to leave their houses.”
The school board’s proposal heads next to the Republican-led Legislature. Stitt said that even if lawmakers were to approve it, he’d veto it.
“The thing that worries me most is that kids are not going to enroll in school,” Luján said. “And when kids are at school, they’re not going to feel safe — and that’s not good for anybody.”
