Children, parents, educators, faith leaders and immigrants' rights activists were among the dozens of protesters Tuesday who shut down a House subcommittee after speaking out against proposed bills (HB 793/SB 836) that would allow school boards to prohibit undocumented students from attending public schools.
The House K-12 Subcommittee voted 5-3 to pass the Republican-led bill, largely along party lines — with the exception of Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), who voted in opposition. This comes after the Senate version of the bill, which would allow school boards to charge tuition to undocumented students, also narrowly passed the Senate Education Committee last week with a 5-4 vote.
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The House subcommittee heard testimony against the bill from several Tennesseans. One of those was Damian Felipe Jimenez, a Knoxville sixth-grade student and child of immigrants.
“Just like all the kids in this country, we have the right to dream and make those dreams come true,” Jimenez said. “The right to an education should not be taken away from us because of our immigration status. That’s why I’m here today being the voice of all the kids in this country, including my own friends and family. Let us be kids because we only dream and use our imagination.”
William Mendoza, a Knox County teaching assistant who also testified, noted that the proposed legislation challenges Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling establishing that schools can't deny an education to children based on their immigration status.
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“I think we are wasting taxpayers’ money,” Mendoza said. “We have seen how this law, this bill that’s trying to be passed, is just a game, because they just want to see what they can do. ... Because they want to bring it all the way up to the Supreme Court to be able to challenge it.”
Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) said the 1982 ruling came from “liberal activist judges on our Supreme Court that wanted to pervert our equal protection clause rather than to apply it the way that it was written in 1868.”
Bill sponsor and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) called Plyler v. Doe a “very unusual decision,” and clarified that the bill would not bar undocumented students from all public schools in Tennessee, but leave it up to the discretion of local school boards — saying the federal government must reform the national immigration system.
Children hold signs in opposition to HB 793, March 11, 2025
“It is false hope to give children the best education available in the world and then tell them they can be licensed professionals, they can be doctors, they can be lawyers, they can be accountants, they could run for office,” Lamberth said. “Because it is not true. If they are illegally present, their dreams at some point will have a ceiling, and that is inappropriate. The federal government must fix the immigration process.”
Following the bill’s passage, the subcommittee took a five-minute recess, but was eventually prevented from returning to its business after protesters refused to stop chanting inside the committee room for roughly 10 minutes. When they attempted to return to business, Chair Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville) quickly gaveled in and out, ending the meeting and leaving more than 20 bills that were set to be heard.
“Today, our power shut down that committee,” Pratik Dash, political director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition told supporters, some of whom were in tears. “Our community showed up in force and they couldn't handle that. We are definitely going to be back, this is not the end of our fight, this is not the end of our struggle.”
Protesters react to discussion of HB 793, March 11, 2025
Subcommittee member Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) tells the Scene's sister publication the Nashville Post that he expects the bill to continue to pass through the legislature, echoing the notion that Republicans aim to have the bill challenged in court.
“There's a lot of [legislators] who don't want to vote for it, but they will because they're scared of Republican leadership,” McKenzie said, adding a statement of support to his constituents and the protesters. “Don't let this momentum die.”
The bill was referred to the House Education Committee and is also set to be heard before the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee on March 18.
This story was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
Protesters shut down the March 11, House K-12 Subcommittee meeting after it passed a bill that would allow schools to "refuse to enroll students who are unlawfully present in the United States." Parents, educators, faith leaders and activists spoke out against the bill. pic.twitter.com/aMQwAsTlya
— Nashville Scene (@NashvilleScene) March 11, 2025
