OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s top education official said he would support immigration enforcement raids in schools to assist with the White House’s promise of mass deportations.
This week, President Donald Trump threw out a federal policy that had been in place since 2011 that discouraged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making arrests in “protected areas” like schools, medical centers and places of worship.
Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a TV interview posted Friday that he would help the Trump administration in “any way they see fit” to carry out immigration enforcement, including ICE raids in schools.
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“For years the liberal media has been vilifying Republicans for separating illegal immigrant children from their parents,” Walters said in a news release Friday afternoon. “Now they want us to explain why we’d let ICE agents into schools. The answer is simple: we want to ensure that deported parents are reconnected with their children and keep families together.”
Chicago Public Schools said ICE agents attempted to enter an elementary school on Friday, but the school denied them entry. However, the U.S. Secret Service later clarified it was one of its agents in the area investigating a threat, not ICE conducting immigration enforcement.
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Walters has proposed a rule at the state Education Department, which he leads, that would require schools to ask for students’ proof of citizenship or legal immigration status during enrollment.
His proposal would not prohibit any students from attending public schools, but districts would have to report to the Education Department the number of undocumented children they enroll.
Walters said Friday he intends to share this information with the federal government to assist with immigration enforcement.
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“The first step is getting them the information,” Walters said in an interview with Tulsa TV station KTUL. “That’s part of what they flagged is, you know, schools haven’t been working with law enforcement on this. Well, in Oklahoma, we’re going to work with law enforcement. We are going to work with the Trump administration.”
The Oklahoma State Board of Education, which Walters also heads, is expected to vote Tuesday on the proposed immigration rule. If it passes, the state Legislature would have the choice of voting on it or allowing the governor to decide whether to approve it. The rule would carry the force of law if OK’d by the Legislature or governor.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office remains focused on deporting undocumented immigrants who committed crimes unrelated to their immigration status, spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said.
“Governor Stitt supports the strong enforcement of immigration laws and believes we have a responsibility to know who is in our state and how taxpayer dollars are being spent,” Siegfried said.
The office of the Senate president pro tem did not return a request for comment Friday. House Speaker Kyle Hilbert’s office declined to comment on a rule that hasn’t yet passed a board vote to be submitted to the Legislature, nor did he remark on potential ICE involvement in schools.
Walters initially suggested the rule last month as a way to gauge current and future needs for English learner programs and other school resources to accommodate immigrant children.
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Advocates of Oklahoma immigrant communities warned citizenship checks in schools could dissuade undocumented families from enrolling their children in public education.
Schools should be a safe haven from immigration enforcement, said Juan Lecona, a member of the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education.
“This is not about red or blue,” Lecona said Friday. “It’s about the future of our students. Let them learn. Let them become whoever they want to be in the future. By doing this, you are breaking up families, and on top of that, how are the schools going to benefit from it?”
Lecona is the first immigrant to serve on the Oklahoma City school board. His parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a child in 1990 with a legal visa and permit, he said. Once that paperwork expired, he became undocumented.
Lecona is now a U.S. citizen with children attending the Oklahoma City district. As a school board member, he represents a majority Latino area in the city’s south side.
He said immigrants living in his community are afraid and “don’t know what to do.”
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“I’m concerned for my community, our working people, because that’s what we want. We just want to work and achieve our American dream,” Lecona said. “We’re not here to cause trouble.”
Oklahoma City Superintendent Jamie Polk has said the district has no plans to collect students’ immigration status. The district administration did not return a request for comment on Walters’ statements Friday.
Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.