(The Center Square) – Illinois taxpayers are being told there will be no added cost from a measure ensuring non-citizen children have access to public education while being safe from immigration enforcement inside schools.
House Bill 3247 from state Rep. Lilian Jiménez, D-Chicago, was heard earlier this month in a House committee.
“It will protect students and school communities from immigration enforcement actions at schools and school facilities unless there’s a valid federal warrant,” Jiménez told members of the Illinois House Education Policy Committee on March 19.
State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, asked Martin Klein from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund about how much taxpayers are on the hook for educating children brought to the U.S. illegally.
“The bill does not establish the right. The right is established by the United States Constitution,” Klein said. “So, the bill does not cause any costs to schools.”
“I would have to disagree with that,” Niemerg said.
The Illinois State Board of Education has requested $35 million for New Arrival Student Grants for local school districts across the state.
State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, asked how HB 3247 would impact the ability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter a school to serve a detention order against an 18-year-old illegal immigrant.
“There’s a difference between a kindergartner and, you know, somebody that is 18 years old, potentially a member of a violent gang,” Wilhour said.
Fred Tsao with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said ICE could still enforce that, just not in the school.
“They can wait outside the school and wait for this person to emerge from the school and arrest them there,” Tsao said. “Nothing prevents that.”
“Interesting,” Wilhour said. “It sounds like the same concept that they’re employing in the Cook County Jail and it’s not a very good one.”
Illinois law prevents state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials for civil immigration detention orders, including preventing jailers from notifying ICE if they have a non-citizen in their custody.
Jiménez’s measure is expected to be amended and is being held on second reading.
