Tennessee Republican lawmakers want to allow schools to deny enrollment to unauthorized immigrant students — a move that would directly challenge a long-standing U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The proposed legislation would allow Tennessee schools to refuse to enroll a student “who is unlawfully present in the United States.” It does not require school districts or charter schools to deny enrollment, so if the bill became law, the implementation could vary across the state.
The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Bo Watson, R-North Chattanooga, said the intention is to have dialogue about the funding challenges that unauthorized immigration creates for K-12 schools, as well as to give local governments the ability to make some decisions around it.
“I recognize that this is a sensitive and difficult conversation,” he said in a video interview. “This is not about any particular group. This is about a funding mechanism that would appear to be on an unsustainable path and a federal government that has had a difficult time at addressing our immigration issues, particularly our illegal immigration issues, and a Supreme Court decision some 40 years ago, that was a 5-4 decision, that puts pressure back on the states to financially sustain and support their decision.”
The bill was filed Tuesday by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, and Watson. Fifteen Republican lawmakers are co-sponsoring the bill, including state Rep. Greg Martin, R-Hixson.