Republican lawmakers in the Tennessee Senate passed a bill that would bar immigrant children without legal status from being accepted into public schools across the state.
The proposal, which passed 19-13, requires immigration or citizenship documentation from the more than 900,000 students who are attending the state's public schools. Sen. Bo Watson introduced the bill, known as Senate Bill 836.
Immigrant Students and Public Schools
The bill also gives the Tennessee public charter and K-12 schools the option of barring student admission of students who cannot provide proof that they are legal residents. They could also decide to charge them tuition.
If the proposal is enacted into law, the state would become the only one in the United States to deny students without legal status the right to get an education in public schools. There are similar school exclusion policies that lawmakers in Idaho, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas are considering.
Despite this, Tennessee is the only state where a bill is actively moving through its legislature to implement such policies. The National Immigration Law Center issued a statement following the Tennessee Senate's vote on the bill, according to the Tennessee Lookout.
The center called the proposal a shameful attempt to take away the freedom of Tennessee children. The statement added that the public interest law firm is prepared to fight to defend the right to education for all kids alongside their partners in court.
The bill is considered among the most controversial in the Tennessee Legislature this year and has drawn massive support from the state's Republican supermajority. It also faces pushback from Democrats and has resulted in public protests that have disrupted legislative hearings.
Addressing the Issue of Illegal Immigrants
Those who oppose the proposal, which is expected to result in a court challenge if it is enacted into law, will create a law that does not make sense, either financially or morally. They also argued that it only works to punish innocent children in the state, WJHL reported.
Ferrell Haile, one of the seven dissenting Republicans, said that a child should not share the guilt of the parent nor the parent the guilt of the child. He said that he believes they are punishing children for the "wrongdoing" of their parents.
While Haile supports the core goal of the bill, adding that the state needs a way to determine how many students do not have legal status, he argued this is not the proper way of addressing the issue, as per The Leaf Chronicle.
