Tennessee bill allows schools to deny enrollment for illegal migrants, proposal panned as unconstitutional

Tennessee state lawmakers introduced a bill to allow school districts and law enforcement agencies to deny enrollment to illegal migrant students.

S.B. 836 states that a law enforcement agency or public charter school "may enroll, or refuse to enroll, a student who is unlawfully present in the United States."

"This legislation says, if you are not able to prove your lawful residence here, a local LEA may charge you tuition for attendance, which addresses the physical nature of this legislation. This is not about denying education to those students," Watson said, according to the outlet.

Immigration attorney Brittany Faith criticized the bill as unconstitutional and said it was proposed to challenge the Plyler v. Doe ruling.

"It's blatantly unconstitutional. They've been pretty honest that that's their goal, is to set this up as a challenge to Plyler v. Doe," Faith told Fox Chattanooga.

"Because of that, they're paying the same amount of taxes that go towards the public education system that somebody who is in legal status does," she said.