As a supposed cost-cutting measure, a Republican member of the Oklahoma House has suggested identifying 82,000 non-English-speaking school kids and then handing them over to ICE for possible deportation. This is despite the fact that 93 percent of Latino kids are U.S. citizens. “On this subject of deporting students, that is not a position that we support,” said a fellow House Republican. But then again, this is a state that went by nearly 40 points for the mass deportation candidate, and it’s exactly the kind of hate he’s riled up in his mission to make America white again. More on Rep. Mike Ritze’s deplorable proposal:
“Identify them and then turn them over to ICE to see if they truly are citizens — and do we really have to educate noncitizens?” Ritze asked.
The lawmaker disagrees with the idea that the state should be responsible for educating children who aren’t citizens, though a 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, actually prohibits states from denying education to undocumented immigrants.
Still, Ritze told the station that the proposal — which faced immediate backlash and was called “utterly shameful” by the state school’s superintendent — could save $60 million.
The Tulsa lawmaker, as the Associated Press notes, didn’t specify whether he wants to merely hand over thousands of names to federal authorities, or whether he’d prefer to see the state round up the individuals — a task that presumably would come with a substantial price tag.
Let’s entertain Ritze’s racist idea for a hot second before throwing it back in the trash where it belongs. It costs anywhere from $10,000 to $12,500 to deport someone, per various estimates. According to the Department of Education, there are actually about 50,000 non-English-speaking kids in the state, not the 82,000 Ritze claimed. Let’s assume they’re all undocumented. Do the low-ball math, and that adds up to $500,000,000 in child deportations to save the state $60,000,000. Either Ritze is incredibly stupid, or incredibly racist. It’s probably safe to assume both.
This isn’t the first time Ritze has gone after brown kids, either. In 2014, when a surge of unaccompanied minors escaping gang violence and death arrived at the U.S./Mexico border in search of asylum, Ritze—a doctor, apparently—contradicted the state’s Republican governor and called on officials to quarantine them. This is despite the fact that according to the World Health Organization, Mexican and Central American kids actually have better vaccination rates than U.S.-born kids.
Anyway, “Oklahoma faces an $878 million budget gap for next year, and lawmakers are wrangling over how to raise new money or cut spending.” According to 2013 data, Latinos in Oklahoma paid $373 million in state and local taxes, with foreign-born Latinos paying $186 million in taxes. “Oklahoma’s 7,663 Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $1.7 billion and employed 8,940 people in 2007.” Maybe a good start to your money problems, guys, is to recognize and encourage the entrepreneurship of Latinos and immigrants, not to kick them out.