A federal and state onslaught threatens migrants’ right to education

A judge has refused to ban immigration agents from raiding schools. Tennessee has taken the first step toward banning undocumented children from attending school. Florida has increased college tuition fees based on a student’s immigration status. The Donald Trump administration has announced an investigation into 50 universities for allegedly promoting inclusion and diversity on their campuses. The agency overseeing English-language education has disappeared as part of the dismantling of the Department of Education. Unrelated but related, several state and federal initiatives are converging on one goal: depriving migrant students of their right to an education.

Last Tuesday, the Tennessee House committee approved Republican Majority Leader William Lamberth’s bill, which would allow K-12 public and charter schools to “enroll or refuse to enroll a student who is unlawfully present in the United States.” Outside the meeting room, angry protesters chanted “Shame on you!” and “Shut it down!”

“It is false hope to give children the best education available in the world and then tell them they can be licensed professionals, they can be licensed doctors, they can be lawyers, they can be accountants, they can run for office, because it is not true,” Lamberth said, according to the Tennessee Lookout. “If they are illegally present, their dreams at some point will have a ceiling and that is inappropriate,” he added.

His proposal goes even further than the one being discussed in the State Senate, which had already sparked outrage in the immigrant community. Sponsored by Republican Senator Bo Watson, the bill requires public schools to verify students’ immigration status and charge tuition to children who cannot prove legal residency in the United States.

Both initiatives advocate the idea that undocumented immigrants are a burden on taxpayers, even though they pay the same taxes on gasoline, food, and retail purchases that help fund public schools.

“It’s not legal. If Tennessee approves it, it would violate federal law. But this will obviously make parents afraid to send their children to school. And I’m sure it will have a domino effect and, again, lead to significant drops in student attendance,” says Loredana Valtierra, a partner at The Century Foundation, a think tank that promotes equality in education.

These projects still need to go through several legislative processes to be approved, but if they become a reality, it is very likely that they would face legal challenges from civil rights organizations, since it contradicts the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which in 1982 recognized the right to education of all children regardless of their legal status.

Although not prohibited by authorities, the fear of arrests as part of Trump’s campaign of mass deportations has already wreaked havoc on school attendance. Considered for years as “sensitive locations,” such as hospitals and churches, the Republican has scrapped that protection, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents can now enter these buildings in search of migrants to deport.

Fear of raids

Children suffer from anxiety about going to school and parents are afraid of sending them and, if detained, never seeing them again. Border czar Tom Homan, head of ICE, has repeatedly advocated for detentions to be carried out in schools if necessary. This week, the case of a child from Konawaena Elementary School in Kona, Hawaii, who was detained while attending class, was brought to light. County authorities explained that this was done to reunite him with his father, who was also detained. Both had deportation orders.

“Cruelty and chaos are the key point, and they want people to be afraid to go to school and learn, because they don’t want foreigners in this country to have access to education. That’s the ultimate goal. That’s why people are so concerned about the presence of police officers in schools, about children being abandoned by their parents, and about having to witness their arrest. This violates the right to education,” says Naureen Shah, director of government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The latest setback in preventing feared ICE agents from invading classrooms in search of undocumented students to deport has come from a federal judge in Denver, who rejected a lawsuit filed by Denver Public Schools seeking to keep immigration enforcement off school campuses. Attorneys for the lawsuit argued that families' fear of detention since the ban on sensitive locations was lifted is leading to increased student absenteeism.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico, a Trump appointee and former Colorado attorney general, said it was unclear to what extent the fear was actually due to the new rules, rather than broader concerns about increased immigration enforcement. He also noted that public schools in Denver had not yet been raided.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is another state where attempts have been made to ban undocumented students from education. Governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, halted a plan promoted by State Superintendent Ryan Walters and approved by the State Board of Education to require children's immigration status upon enrollment in public school. Stitt, who has spoken out against illegal immigration, said policymakers should focus on targeting those in the country illegally and those who commit other crimes.

Florida

Efforts to impede immigrant access to education have been notable in the state of Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis, a fan of Trump’s anti-immigration campaign, has repeatedly attempted to ban undocumented students from in-state tuition at Florida universities. Last February, he succeeded, repealing the 2014 law that allowed students without legal status to pay in-state tuition, which is much lower than that paid by out-of-state residents. Although the measure has been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, starting July 1, students without legal papers will see their already high university tuition rates triple.

The price increase will affect, among others, beneficiaries of the DACA program, which grants residency permits to those who arrived illegally as children.

Students of immigrant origin have been a vital source of the U.S. college population for two decades. The number of students enrolled rose from 3.4 million in 2000 to nearly 6.1 million in 2021. This 78% increase contrasts with the 22% increase in total college enrollment, from 15.3 million to 18.7 million, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

Research at 50 universities

Ending diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, which have allowed many Latino and other racially diverse students to access college, is one of the Trump administration’s goals. Last Friday, the Department of Education announced that investigations have been opened against more than 50 universities for alleged racial discrimination against white and Asian American students.

Most of the inquiries concern the universities' partnership with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization that helps students from underrepresented groups earn business degrees with the goal of diversifying the business world.

The Department of Education explained that 45 universities are under investigation in connection with “schools’ civil rights obligations to end the use of racial preferences and stereotypes in educational programs and activities.” Six other universities are being investigated “for allegedly awarding impermissible scholarships based on race” and one university for “allegedly operating a program that segregates students based on race.”

The Supreme Court, in a 2023 decision, prohibited universities from using race as a factor in admissions.

Reduction of the Department of Education

The attack on universities follows the president's assault on the Department of Education, which he has already said he wants to get rid of. This week, he announced the layoffs of 1,300 employees, halving the 4,133-employee workforce he had when he took office. In addition to the layoffs, 572 employees accepted voluntary redundancies, and 63 probationary workers had already been dismissed last month.

Among other functions, the department administers federal loans for college education, monitors student performance, and enforces civil rights laws in schools. One of the agencies that has disappeared is the Office of English Language Acquisition, which oversees how students and school districts help children learn English.

Migrant students, in this case, will be directly affected. “We won't know who will now be responsible for ensuring that schools provide children with the right to learn English. That will have devastating consequences,” Valtierra warns.

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