Just a few weeks into the ongoing legislative session, it is not hyperbole to say the GOP supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly is waging an all-out war on immigration.
Fulfilling one of the key priorities of Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s special legislative session, Republicans in the statehouse – aside from Chattanooga’s Sen. Todd Gardenhire – passed an anti-immigration bill that creates a state-level immigration enforcement bureau, offers over $5.5 million to municipalities to assist in mass deportation efforts, criminalizes any elected officials as felons if they vote for sanctuary city policies and allows the state to withhold certain immigration enforcement records from the public.
But the state GOP isn’t done yet. Now they’re going after immigrant schoolchildren.
On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Bo Watson of North Chattanooga proposed legislation that would allow school districts to deny enrollment to unauthorized immigrant students, a blatant violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent which dictates all children are entitled to public education under the 14th Amendment.
Which is clearly the point. As with Tennessee’s law barring gender-affirming care for minors, which is under ongoing litigation, this is bait for a 6-3 conservative majority Supreme Court to overturn that precedent.