Joseph Turner, founder of an anti-immigration group called American Children First, recently proposed a ban in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint School District (a district between the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside in Southern California) that will not allow immigrant children to attend public schooling in the area. The ban does not, however, only affect immigrant children but also legal citizens of the U.S. who may have immigrant parents. He proposes that these children should be allowed to attend school but will have to pay a tuition of sorts.
Immigrant children have been allowed to receive free public education since 1982 when the Supreme Court decided during the Plyler v. Doe case that denying these children schooling was unconstitutional and violated the Equal Protection Clause. Turner hopes that his efforts will overturn this ruling and inspire other counties and states to follow in his example; stating that he “plans to bring his initiatives to a national level by first targeting a small school district.”
While the District superintendent, Cali Brinks, says that Turner has not personally reached out to her, Turner insists that his efforts will be successful due to high support for Trump in the area during the election. In fact, 44% of the San Bernardino County and 42% of the Riverside country voted for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. If this proposal was to qualify and get on the ballot, it would need about 3,200 signatures to do so.
“My philosophy is you can’t make America first if you make American children second” says Turner.
While it is highly unlikely that his ban will even get on the ballot, if it was to happen it would be hard for it to not be shut down by the Supreme Court since they are known for hardly ever changing their stance on an issue once it has been decided in a court case.
