Oklahoma colleges require proof of citizenship for college students

Mother and father enrolling youngsters in Oklahoma public colleges will probably be required to offer proof of their kid’s U.S. citizenship or authorized immigration standing below a proposed rule authorised Tuesday by the State Board of Schooling.

The board voted unanimously to approve the rule geared toward serving to President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies. It nonetheless must be authorised by the Legislature and the governor.

Listed here are some issues to know in regards to the proposed rule.

What does the rule require?

The rule requires mother and father or authorized guardians to offer proof of citizenship of their youngsters when enrolling them in public faculty, together with a U.S. delivery certificates, U.S. passport, consular report of delivery overseas, everlasting resident card or different authorized doc.

The proposed rule wouldn’t stop college students with out authorized standing from enrolling or hold them from attending faculty. However it might require districts to file the variety of college students for whom proof of citizenship was not supplied and to report these numbers, excluding personally identifiable info, to the Oklahoma State Division of Schooling.

Why is the rule being proposed?

Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters, the state’s schooling chief, mentioned the rule is required to assist colleges collect details about the place to put employees and assets.

“Our rule round unlawful immigration accounting is solely that,” Walters mentioned. “It’s to account for what number of college students of unlawful immigrants are in our colleges.”

There are an estimated 90,000 Oklahoma residents with out authorized standing, together with an estimated 6,000 youngsters enrolled in colleges in Oklahoma, based on the Migration Coverage Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based assume tank targeted on enhancing immigration coverage.

How are individuals reacting to the rule?

Whereas the board met, a whole bunch of scholars and protesters gathered exterior the administration constructing to protest the board’s determination.

The plan has been sharply criticized by lecturers and civil liberty teams, and is inflicting concern inside Oklahoma’s immigrant communities, mentioned Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma Metropolis’s closely Hispanic south facet.

“The group is scared, clearly,” Alonso-Sandoval mentioned. “The conversations I’ve had with mother and father, all they’re doing is making an attempt to offer one of the best alternative for his or her youngsters, like every mother and father. They’re beginning to query: Do I unenroll my youngster from faculty?”

Javier Terrazas, a development employee from south Oklahoma Metropolis with an elementary school-aged daughter, mentioned he is observed how fearful some residents are once they go to select up their youngsters.

“Seeing the mother and father’ faces, the look of concern once I go to select up my daughter,” he mentioned whereas protesting the board’s determination. “All people is trying over their shoulder. I’ve by no means seen that.”

“It is powerful seeing that. It is heartbreaking.”

At Oklahoma Metropolis Public Colleges, one of many state’s largest districts, Superintendent Jamie Polk mentioned in a letter to oldsters and employees final month – after the rule was first proposed – that federal legislation ensures each kid’s proper to a public schooling, no matter immigration standing.

“OKCPS doesn’t, nor do we’ve plans to, accumulate the immigration standing of our college students or their households,” she mentioned.

What is going to Oklahoma do with the data?

Walters has mentioned he’ll assist efforts by Trump to implement immigration legal guidelines, together with by permitting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers into Oklahoma colleges.

He reiterated that place on Tuesday, saying the division stands able to share any immigration info it gathers with legislation enforcement companions.

“If a legislation enforcement official is available in and asks for info, we’re legally required to offer that info,” he mentioned. “If they arrive and ask us for sure info, we’ll fortunately present that.”

Walters has spent a lot of his first time period in workplace attacking what he describes as “woke” ideology in public colleges, requiring Bible instruction in school rooms and making an attempt to ban books from faculty libraries.

What does present legislation say?

A 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling in 1982, often known as Plyler vs. Doe, affirmed the appropriate of youngsters residing within the nation illegally to attend public colleges, though some conservative lawmakers have questioned whether or not immigrants with out authorized residency ought to have the appropriate to a public schooling.

Alabama tried to require public colleges to ask the immigration standing of scholars as a part of a sweeping immigration legislation in 2011, however the state in the end agreed to completely block these provisions after a federal appeals courtroom quickly halted them.

Immigration specialists say makes an attempt to undermine the Plyler determination needs to be taken significantly, pointing to current Supreme Court docket rulings which have overturned longstanding precedents on abortion rights and affirmative motion in greater schooling.