Immigration attorney Lorena Rivas explains that the Oklahoma State Board of Education, aligned with Superintendent Ryan Walters, approved a proposal to ask public‑school students (or possibly their parents) about immigration status. The measure has been sent to the state legislature and, if passed, to the governor for signature, but it would not take effect until the following year. Rivas highlights the proposal’s vague language, noting it is unclear whether the question targets the student or the parent. She argues the state should prioritize addressing its severe education challenges—ranked 49th nationally, a massive teacher shortage, and underfunding—rather than focusing on deportation. Citing Supreme Court precedent, she affirms that every child, regardless of immigration status, has a constitutional right to public education. Rivas raises privacy concerns about the large amount of personal data the state would collect, predicts lawsuits from parents, schools, and nonprofits, and warns that the initiative would divert already scarce resources from education. She urges parents to keep sending children to school, acknowledges the proposal is not yet law, and asks for prayers.
Chapters
Hi, this is immigration attorney Lorena Rivas from Oklahoma. And as many as you know, yesterday the state board sided with our superintendent, Ryan Walters, in allowing this proposal to go forward to the legislation and to the governor to ask for approval and signature. And this proposal was for any student who is enrolled in our public school system, that they would be asked about their immigration status. Now, what's a little bit unclear, because again, it was written not very well, was whether it was the student's immigration status or the immigration status of their parents. This is not completely clear, but what we know, it was approved upon, and then it's now was sent to the legislation for approval. And if they approve it, then of course for the governor to sign. Now, I would love for the legislation to be like, nope, don't pass it. But we are in Oklahoma, um, where we don't really care about the education, even though we're 49th in the nation, even though our teachers are leaving in droves, they're not getting paid properly, we have a huge teacher shortage, there's confidence loss completely in our educational system here in Oklahoma. But what they want to focus instead, the superintendent and the state board, is on deportation, whenever they should be focusing on education, not deportation. Now again, this has not been implemented yet. It still has to go forward through the proper channels of becoming— making it lawful. So it still has several months, and if it was passed, it wouldn't be implemented until the next year. Until that time, you know, parents still need to continue to send their children to school. They're not going to be questioned about their immigration status. They are protected from that. And remember, any student, regardless of whether they're here in the country lawfully or not, has a right to education. This was established by a Supreme Court decision, so it is in their right. Any student can go to school here, um, whether they're lawful, unlawful, whether they have documents or not. So the fact that, you know, this question about whether they're lawful or not, they have status, is really beyond. And of course, the superintendent, the state board say it's for record-keeping purposes to know, like, maybe the ELL resources, English as a Language Learning resources, and any other thing. But at the same time, I mean, like, this is a huge amount of data that they would be collecting, and it's kind of invasion of privacy. Now, I'm sure if this is signed, there will be multiple lawsuits filed by parents or by state education places or nonprofits. So whether it is actually implemented or not, we'll see. But regardless, this is taking a huge resources pull from our state of Oklahoma, which already struggles enough with education and not funding it properly. I'll keep you guys updated, but for now, keep us in your prayers. I'm in Oklahoma. Please keep us in your prayers.
