Ryan Walters’ letter to Harris sparks backlash in Oklahoma

State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters is doubling down on his demands that Vice President Kamala Harris send nearly $475 million to reimburse Oklahoma taxpayers for educating children whose parents are illegal immigrants.

In response, some state lawmakers and community advocates are criticizing his request as an attempt to denigrate Latinos and immigrants and deflect attention from questions about his oversight of Oklahoma schools.

In a statement accompanying the letter, Walters said he was requesting $474.9 million from the federal government based on an analysis of the financial impact of illegal immigration on Oklahoma schools. In July, the superintendent issued guidance for public school districts on how to report these impacts.

However, in his letter to Harris sent on Tuesday, Walters cited another source for the $474.9 million figure: Federation for American Immigration Reformimmigration restriction group.

An organization that has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to ties to white supremacist groups, said the numbers are based on estimates including that 41,766 children of undocumented immigrants attended Oklahoma schools in 2023. The group’s analysis shows that many of these children are likely U.S. citizens.

However, Walters referred to this amount as the cost of educating “children of illegal immigrants” and stated that Harris was responsible for covering these costs due to his oversight of U.S.-Mexico border policy. As of press time, the White House had not responded to The Oklahoman’s request for comment. It is unclear how the vice president would transfer the $474.9 million to the state of Oklahoma.

The letter, which was sent to The Washington Examiner and Fox News, came to light after an investigative report by the nonpartisan Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency criticized how the Oklahoma Department of Education communicated with school districts and implemented new programs.

Walters’ letter to Harris was amplified in a video posted Thursday on the state Department of Education’s official social media pages. The video includes several statistics cited in Walters’ letter, as well as footage of crowds at the U.S.-Mexico border. “We hereby demand the return of the amount of $474,900,000,” reads one of the captions in the video.

The superintendent’s spokesman, Dan Isett, did not respond to specific questions from The Oklahoman about the production of the film or Walters’ position on the education of U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. But he emailed a short statement blaming Harris for policies that have cost Oklahoma millions of dollars and saying taxpayers have a right to be outraged.

“Supt. “Walters is participating in the public policy debate to protect Oklahomans and the future of our state, just as he was elected,” Isett wrote.

The attorney says Ryan Walters’ letter contained “several false information.”

Angelica Villalobos, executive director of the Oklahoma City-based immigrant advocacy group Immigrant Connexión, issued a statement in response to Walters’ letter, saying it contained “several false information.”

“First, it is surprising that as a school superintendent, Walters does not understand how the federal and state governments function, particularly when it comes to the allocation of state taxes and funding for public education,” Villalobos said. “His request to the vice president reveals either a lack of basic government knowledge or a desire to politicize children’s education based on disinformation.”

People born in this country are U.S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, it is illegal to ask questions about a public school student’s citizenship status, and the Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyler v. Doe ruling guarantees undocumented students an education.

Under the law, students are entitled to a free public education regardless of their immigration status, Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval of Oklahoma City said during the debate a recent panel discussion on Latino leadership in the election. He added that it is the job of the superintendent of state schools to ensure that these students are well served.

“If we attack and leave marginalized students behind, it won’t make Oklahoma a better state,” Alonso-Sandoval said. “It’s important that we really focus on more policy conversations because this is just another distraction.”

Walters’ rhetoric assumes that undocumented families are a burden on the state’s education system, Villalobos said, while other data shows what immigrant families contribute to the state’s economy.

AND the latest study by the Institute of Taxes and Economic Policya left-leaning tax policy organization found that approximately 89,000 undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma paid more than $227 million in state and local taxes in 2022. Nationwide, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022.

“These funds directly support Oklahoma’s infrastructure, including education, health care and public safety services,” Villalobos said. “If reimbursements are being discussed, it is fair to ask where the significant tax contributions made by these community members are being reimbursed.”

The story of Ryan Walters speaking out about his opposition to illegal immigration

Walters was outspoken in his opposition to illegal immigration. During the October 1 vice presidential debate, Walters posted words of support on social media Donald Trump’s Republican vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, and said, “In Oklahoma, we will hold illegal immigrants accountable in our schools.”

In his letter to Harris, Walters said educating undocumented students places a “significant financial burden” on the state and creates additional obstacles, such as tutoring in English as a second language.

More than 6,000 students in Oklahoma are considered “Limited English Proficient” (LEP) students, Walters said, adding that the state will need an additional 1,065 certified LEP teachers over the next five years to help educate these students.

LEP students are defined as students for whom English is not their primary language and who have limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English.

Walters also said that between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, nearly 3,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were sent to sponsors in Oklahoma, citing data from the US Office of Refugee Resettlement. These years correlate with President Joe Biden’s administration and the final four months of Trump’s presidency.

From fiscal year 2017 through 2021, the period spanning most of Trump’s term as well as the end of the Obama administration and the start of the Biden presidency, 2,160 unaccompanied immigrant children were sent to sponsors in Oklahoma.

Young people in Oklahoma should have access to a barrier-free learning environment, said Nicole McAfee, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Freedom Oklahoma, which has been critical of Walters’ policies as superintendent. McAfee described his letter to Harris as an attempt to gain national attention in a presidential election year.

“While it may be tempting to engage in a debate about the fact that undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes or talk about how many of our industries rely on undocumented labor, this would require a good faith commitment that is not present in any media frenzy regarding Walters and ultimately ignores the fact that young people in Oklahoma are not political pawns who must continually prove their worthiness in order to be eligible for an education again,” McAfee said.