Jim Lucas
INDIANAPOLIS — Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, has filed a bill that would allow school corporations in Indiana to deny enrollment to undocumented students and require the state to defend school corporations against lawsuits over denying admission.
The bill, HB 1394, would allow school corporations to deny admission to immigrant students if they determine “by a preponderance of the evidence that the immigrant student is present in the United States in violation of law,” according to the most recent version of the proposal.
However, the measure would not require school corporations to deny admission to undocumented students, but would mandate that the Indiana Attorney General’s office defends school corporations against lawsuits filed over denying enrollment. It also would require school corporations to file an annual report on immigrant students enrolled in their schools.
Lucas told The Republic that he has been working on the bill with the Indiana Attorney General’s office and that, should the proposal get a hearing, he expects it to be amended.
“When you look at the cost of educating those that are not in this country legally, we are running up into the hundreds of millions of dollars just at the state level on that, and even tens of millions locally,” Lucas said. “The Seymour school corporation got last year, I believe, $600,000 additionally in state money, which is taxpayer money, just for their (English learner) population.”
Lucas’ district includes much of Jackson County, including the city of Seymour, which has seen an increase in immigration in recent years, particularly from Guatemala, according to federal records and interviews with local advocates.
Hundreds of children traveling alone who were picked up at the U.S-Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities have been sent to live with “sponsors” in Jackson County and the surrounding area in recent years, federal records show.
In total, 599 unaccompanied migrant children were sent to live with sponsors in Jackson, Bartholomew and Jennings counties from January 2015 to May 2023, according to federal records. More than 550,000 unaccompanied migrants were released to sponsors across the country during that period.
Most of those migrant children wound up in Jackson County, including 509 children who were sent to live with sponsors in Seymour.
The figures come from The New York Times, which obtained data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the locations of unaccompanied migrant children once they are released to sponsors. The Times gained access to the records following a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit.
At the same time, Seymour Community Schools has reported a nearly 10-fold increase in the number of English learner students over the past 19 years, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
English learner students, also referred to as English language learners, are students whose first language is not English but who are learning English.
Seymour Community Schools reported 1,938 English learner students this school year, up from 1,647 during the 2022-2023 school year and 202 during the 2005-2006 school year, according to state records.
As of last school year, 34.5% of Seymour Community Schools students were English learners, up from 25% just before the COVID-19 pandemic and 5% during the 2005-2006 school year.
Lucas’ bill comes just a couple months after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that he was launching an investigation into reports from residents and elected officials about the influx of “illegal aliens” and “legal migrants” into Seymour and two other cities.
Rokita issued civil investigative demand documents, which are administrative subpoenas that allow federal government agencies to request extraordinary amounts of information from private entities without any formal court procedures, from several organizations, including the Jackson County Industrial Development Corp.
In October, Rokita issued a civil investigative document to the city of Seymour as part of an investigation into whether the Seymour Police Department was violating the state’s ban on sanctuary cities.
The city of Seymour said in a response that “there is no legal or factual basis to support any accusation” that its police department was violating the ban or not cooperating with federal authorities.
“The Seymour Police Department and its officers are dedicated to fulfilling their duties and oaths of office,” the city of Seymour said in a statement. “They are relentless in their support of the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Indiana, and faithfully and impartially serve their community. The SPD has a long history of working alongside federal immigration authorities, sharing information and resources with its federal partners.”
Lucas said he anticipates legal challenges should the bill clear the General Assembly and be signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana declined to comment on the proposed legislation.
“If by some chance we could get (this bill) out of the legislature and into law, it would immediately go into the court system. We have a very aggressive attorney general,” Lucas said. “We have a governor that has made immigration one of his top priorities, and then, at this current moment in history, we happen to have a fairly conservative Supreme Court.”
