Tennessee bill allows schools to deny enrollment for illegal migrants, proposal panned as unconstitutional

Tennessee state lawmakers introduced a bill to allow school districts and law enforcement agencies to deny enrollment to illegal migrant students.

S.B. 836 states that a law enforcement agency or public charter school “may enroll, or refuse to enroll, a student who is unlawfully present in the United States.”

Republican Sen. Bo Watson, who sponsored the bill, said the proposal aims to save the state money. The bill was amended to give school districts the option to charge tuition for a student’s enrollment rather than making it a requirement, according to Fox Chattanooga.

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“This legislation says, if you are not able to prove your lawful residence here, a local LEA may charge you tuition for attendance, which addresses the physical nature of this legislation. This is not about denying education to those students,” Watson said, according to the outlet.

But the bill contradicts the current law affirmed by the 1981 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe, which ruled that states provide funding for any student seeking a public education, regardless of their immigration status.

Immigration attorney Brittany Faith criticized the bill as unconstitutional and said it was proposed to challenge the Plyler v. Doe ruling.

“It’s blatantly unconstitutional. They’ve been pretty honest that that’s their goal, is to set this up as a challenge to Plyler v. Doe,” Faith told Fox Chattanooga.

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Faith also took issue with the option for schools to charge tuition, citing that Tennessee’s tax structure is sales-tax-based.

“Because of that, they’re paying the same amount of taxes that go towards the public education system that somebody who is in legal status does,” she said.