Tennessee Republican bashes immigrant education bill

by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout
February 12, 2025

Tennessee Republicans are bucking for a Supreme Court showdown to end the constitutional requirement for public schools to teach every child regardless of their immigration status.

But at least one member of the majority party says lawmakers are operating out of “fear” that they’ll run into primary opposition next year if they don’t vote for a bill allowing school districts to opt out of serving immigrant children without permanent legal status.

“There’s an old saying on Wall Street: When the ducks are quacking, you feed ’em,” said Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And the hysteria of anti-Hispanics is running rampant right now, and the ducks are quacking, so this bill is designed to satisfy the ducks and feed ’em what they want to eat.”

House Bill 793, which is sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland and Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson, is being sold as a method to challenge Plyler v. Doe, a precedent-setting 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case. Lamberth and Watson also say passing it is important to keep local school boards from taking on the burden of educating immigrant students.

Watson said the bill is designed to build on action taken during the legislature’s recent special session at the request of President Donald Trump. 

Lawmakers approved $5.5 million two weeks ago to set up a bureau within the Department of Safety and Homeland Security that would work with federal and local law enforcement on deportation of immigrants without permanent legal status. Nearly all of the money will go toward grants to train local law enforcement agencies on handling immigrants without legal status.

Lamberth defended the bill by saying the nation has been inundated with immigrants compared with the early 1980s when the Supreme Court case was decided.

“Those illegal immigrants are not going to be able to benefit from the services reserved for legal immigrants or U.S. citizens, period,” he said. “If they don’t like that, they can go to some state that’s a sanctuary state.”

House Speaker Cameron Sexton supports the bill, saying local school districts are having trouble handling a large number of immigrant students who either speak English as a second language or leave school during different times of the year based on their parents’ jobs.

“It’s detrimental to everything we’re trying to achieve in the school system,” Sexton said.

In addition to creating the immigration enforcement bureau, which will be able to operate confidentially, lawmakers excluded students without permanent legal status from the governor’s private-school voucher bill during the special session.

The move drew opposition from first-term Rep. Gabby Salinas of Memphis, who migrated to America from Bolivia when she was 7. She said the bill is unconstitutional and goes against the “international standard” for educating all children, putting Tennessee on par with countries that engage in child labor and child abuse.

“For us to be leaders at the global stage and to be engaging in such practices, it’s cruel, it’s inhumane, and it’s heartless,” Salinas said.

Even though the bill targets children without permanent legal status, Salinas said it could affect other children who are friends, classmates and neighbors. She predicted a “catastrophic” loss of revenue if the measure passes and eventually becomes law.

“If the human cost is not enough, look at the numbers and financial cost,” she said, noting immigrants contribute heavily to the state and national economy. 

The American Immigration Council reported that 383,800 immigrant residents in Tennessee had more than $11 billion in spending power in 2022 and paid $3.2 billion in taxes. It didn’t delineate immigrants without permanent legal status.

The Migration Policy Institute estimated 128,000 immigrants without legal status live in Tennessee, and 10,000 of those are enrolled in public schools, according to a House Republican Caucus release.

Lamberth said communities across the state shouldn’t be forced to pay for the federal government’s failure to secure the country’s borders.

“Our obligation is to ensure a high-quality education for legal residents first,” Lamberth said.

Despite the claims that immigrant children put a burden on local school districts, J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, said he doesn’t hear complaints from teachers.

The main problem, he said, is that immigrant children are required to be tested as soon as they transfer into a school district.

“The major issue was technology,” Bowman said. He added that the state has a shortage of teachers for English as a second language.

House Bill 793 has not been scheduled to be heard in a House or Senate committee.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.