Tennessee lawmakers are pushing through a bill that would allow schools to refuse students in the country illegally. It’s a move to try to overturn a SCOTUS decision guaranteeing education for all.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Republicans in Tennessee are trying to end the federal right to education for undocumented students by allowing schools to refuse students without legal status. Marianna Bacallao of member station WPLN in Nashville reports on a bill challenging Supreme Court precedent.
MARIANNA BACALLAO, BYLINE: It’s a strategy that has worked for Republicans in the past. The reversal of Roe v. Wade and the federal right to abortion started with a Mississippi state law. Tennessee Representative William Lamberth says that his legislation will be the first step in overturning Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court case that established the right to an education for all students, regardless of immigration status.
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WILLIAM LAMBERTH: If they don’t like that, they can go to some state that’s a sanctuary state. But we’re not going to take money away from the educational system that is there for legal residents and U.S. citizens and educate children that are illegal immigrants. That’s just where we stand on the issue.
BACALLAO: Lamberth isn’t just expecting a lawsuit, he’s counting on it to bring the issue back to the courts. That move has become part of the Republican strategy, especially with the conservative lean on the court, says Stella Yarbrough, the legal director of Tennessee’s ACLU.
STELLA YARBROUGH: If they can tee up challenges to cases that were close calls, I think that they are correct that they are going to get a second bite at the apple.
BACALLAO: Despite the nationwide risk, Yarbrough says it’s important to continue challenging potential laws like this one.
YARBROUGH: Even if you think you’re going to lose in the long run, putting off that loss even for a day, a week, a year can be meaningful.
BACALLAO: For some kids without legal status, those years could mean making it to graduation or hitting crucial learning milestones. But immigrant families and their allies are doing what they can to stop the bill before it passes. Protesters have bused into Nashville from all over the state in record numbers to lobby against the bill as it makes its way through the state House.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Every kid counts, every kid counts.
BACALLAO: Most hearings for Lamberth’s bill have been met with hundreds of protesters crowded into overflow rooms and spilling out into the hallway. Earlier this month, sixth grader Damian Felipe Jimenez testified before a House education subcommittee urging lawmakers to vote no.
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DAMIAN FELIPE JIMENEZ: I am the son of immigrant parents that have shown me to respect and value everyone. Just like me and all the kids in this country, we have the right to dream and make those dreams come true. The right to an education should not be taken away from us because of our immigration status.
BACALLAO: Addressing the committee afterwards, Lamberth argued that until the legal immigration process is fixed at the federal level…
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LAMBERTH: It is false hope to give children the best education available in the world and then tell them that they can be licensed professionals – they could be doctors, they could be lawyers, they could be accountants, they could run for office – because it is not true. If they are illegally present, their dreams at some point will have a ceiling, and that is inappropriate.
BACALLAO: But some undocumented students can become doctors or lawyers, either in other countries or in the U.S., under the DACA program, which allows kids brought to the U.S. illegally to stay in the country and attend college and work. The committee ultimately advanced the legislation but with more Republicans voting no than expected. And lawmakers had to adjourn early because of cries from the crowd. At a rally afterwards, protesters took that as a win.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking Spanish). We adjourned the committee. That was people power. That was not their own decision, that was our community doing this.
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BACALLAO: And as they left the Tennessee capital, hundreds of protesters chanted…
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: We’ll be back, we’ll be back, we’ll be back.
BACALLAO: So far, it hasn’t been an empty promise. As the bill gets closer to passing, neither side is losing steam.
For NPR News in Nashville, I’m Marianna Bacallao.
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