Tennessee just passed a bill that could turn public school teachers into immigration enforcement

Tennessee just passed a bill that could turn public school teachers into immigration enforcement agents. 🚨 The State House approved legislation requiring every K–12 public school to verify the immigration status of students and report that data to the state. The bill’s sponsor has refused to say what the state will actually do with that information once it’s collected. He only said lawmakers can decide later what action they want to take. Democrats warned the data could easily be handed over to ICE, effectively turning schools into surveillance tools. 📄 Representative Justin Pearson called the bill racist and reprehensible, saying it would terrify children and push them out of classrooms. Three Republicans broke ranks and voted against the measure. The bill still has not passed the Tennessee Senate and its future remains uncertain. An earlier version of the proposal was even more extreme. It would have allowed school districts to remove immigrant children from school entirely and charge their families tuition. That version failed partly because the state could not guarantee it would keep receiving more than one billion dollars in federal education funding. The same lawmaker also introduced another bill making it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to remain in Tennessee more than ninety days after a deportation order. ⚖️ Critics say measures like these are part of a growing wave of state efforts to punish immigrant communities through fear and exclusion. But the pushback is real and bipartisan. Children belong in classrooms, and education should never be weaponized against immigrant families. I’m Brian Manning. If you need help with an asylum case, send me the word “CONSULT” in a direct message.