FIRST ON FOX: Red state suing Biden admin for unleashing ‘chaos’ on schools through open border
FIRST ON FOX: The state of Oklahoma is suing to hold the Biden administration accountable for unleashing "massive chaos" on the public school system in the state through four years of open border policies.
The suit, launched by the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, targets President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It demands the Biden administration refund Oklahoma for the approximately $470 million it had to spend on educating thousands of illegal immigrant children over the last four years.
Walters, who filed the suit in the Western District Court of Oklahoma today, told Fox News Digital that public schools are "overrun with illegal immigrants" who are stretching the system’s resources thin and limiting opportunities for the children of taxpaying citizens.
According to data gathered by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the state spends approximately $11,000 per student annually, and the number of unaccompanied migrant children placed in the state is nearly 3,000.
Walters said that Oklahoma schools are struggling to provide adequate resources for immigrant children, such as certified teachers for students with limited English proficiency, transportation and individualized education plans, and that these challenges have a long-term impact on school budgets and the quality of education for all students in the state.
"It truly is chaos in the school system. And who's suffering here? It's the students," said Walters. "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did this intentionally, and we've got students caught in the crossfire here. We have got to protect them, and we've got to get our states back on track in educating our kids."
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Though President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office next week, he said that Oklahoma taxpayers are still being saddled with the costs of the Biden administration’s failed border policies.
He pointed to an NBC interview with outgoing ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner, who said the Biden administration "absolutely" should have acted sooner to shut down the border.
Walters said, "They knew it was happening, and they didn't do anything about it."
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"Last week we had Joe Biden's top ICE director admit that they allowed this to happen, that they allowed the law to be broken … and frankly, they're crystal clear these orders came from the top, they came from Joe Biden and the border czar Kamala Harris," he said. "We cannot just allow them to skate off into the sunset and say, ‘President Trump, here you go, states, sorry, we just caused this massive chaos across your schools, across your state, into your communities.’ Those individuals have to be held accountable for the chaos they brought to our kids and our families. And that's what this lawsuit will do."
Walters called on other states to join Oklahoma’s suit against the Biden administration, saying that "every state has to get a grasp of what illegal immigration has done to their school system, has done to their states."
"This is the future we're talking about; we're trying to get education back on track," he said.
"This is how you change this trajectory. This is how you get the Trump administration the support that they need by holding the current administration accountable, getting this data, getting this information," he went on, concluding: "In Oklahoma, we're not going to tolerate Kamala Harris and Joe Biden allowing our schools to be overrun with illegal immigrants and with this lawsuit, we will hold them accountable to the taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma."