Kevin Stitt, the conservative Republican governor of Oklahoma, and his conservative Republican school principal, appear to be shoulder-to-shoulder in Donald J. Trump's year, with the former sending Oklahoma guards to the southern border, and the latter raising Trump brown Bibles in state schools.
But when director Ryan Walters suggested finding undocumented students at schools in Oklahoma, Stitt said it was enough.
“When I saw them picking kids, I thought it was just too much of a step,” Stitt said in a recent interview in his office at the Capitol.
The fight in Oklahoma might suggest that even conservatives have outer limits to what is acceptable in any era of politics in national rights. Alternatively, you can provide a preview of the next frontier in the fight against immigration.
“It's a shame the governor has undermined President Trump's immigration agenda and decided to put this kind of swipe on him,” Walters said. “He's attacking President Trump.”
It started when Walters, the state's elected school principal, proposed new rules that require Oklahoma public schools to gather citizenship information from students. The proposed rules were approved by the state board of education in January and are now being considered by the Oklahoma Legislature.
But Mr Stitt, whose immigrants were not soft, quickly went wild. He was soon able to resist the proposals from the school chief as members appointed alternatives to the school board of appointments.
Stitt is a strong supporter of border security, sending troops to help patrol the Texas border and lined up to support Trump's deportation efforts. But on his after-school children, Stitt said Walters, a former high school history teacher who was once the governor's protégé, crossed the line.
“I've never heard Trump say, 'Hey, we're going to chase after the kids,'” Stitt said.
Stadt, who is in his final term as governor, said he spoke to Walters and tried to speak to him. “You're just trying to make a political statement, you're trying to put your name in your paper,” Stitt said he told him. “That's why people hate politicians.”
Walters, who is mentioned as a potential candidate for governor next year, has not wavered.
In his office in the state education building, he argued in an interview that his approach was closely in line with the thrust of Trump's policies, including ending the automatic citizenship of almost everyone born in the US soil and allowing federal immigration agents to enroll in schools. He said the attack on a citizenship proposal is similar to an attack on the president.
Walters' goals seem contradictory. Collecting data on the number of immigrant students in Oklahoma schools will help provide language services, he said. However, he also said he wanted to better calculate the cost of undocumented student taxpayers.
“My concerns are taxpayers, national and Oklahoma citizens,” he said. “These are people here legally, they need to vote and protect them in elections.”
His office estimates that around 5,000 immigrant students attend state schools at a cost of around $200 million a year.
Several state legislative bills, including Texas and New Jersey, echoes Walters' efforts as they seek to allow schools to collect tuition fees from immigrant students.
The law, which would likely be challenged in court, appeared to be aimed at challenging the core of the 1982 US Supreme Court decision. The ruling has been a target for some Republicans in recent years, especially as the balance of power in the Supreme Court has changed in favour of conservatives.
Walters said he liked to overturn the precedent. Stitt said that wasn't the case.
Jackson Lermeyer, a pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma and a member of Trump's newly created White House Faith Office, said he liked both the governor and the school principal, but he sided with Walters when it came to collecting citizenship data.
“This is the agenda for the president that won,” said Rahmeier, whose church attracted Trump's family and members of the administration. “We need to know if the student is or is not a US citizen.”
The governor did not oppose enforcing immigration laws, but he worried that undocumented parents would potentially keep their children home rather than being forced to reveal immigrant status.
“The kids did nothing wrong. It's my point,” he said.
Stitt, an entrepreneur at a mortgage company that was first elected in 2018, proposed a better solution that involves modifying the immigration system. This is an idea that listened to pre-Trump Republicans so that it's easier for businesses that want to sponsor foreign workers.
The Oklahoma citizenship proposal must still be considered by Congress before the governor has the opportunity to formally block it.
Tyler Powell, a Republican political consultant in Oklahoma, said personally that Congressional Republicans rubbed the action. Publicly, they have largely avoided conflict. Leaders from the Capitol and the Senate did not respond to requests for comment.
Powell said the correct change in the 2024 Republican primary is a concern that many people will anger Walters, a popular figure at the state's core Republican base.
“Everyone is a bit afraid of Walters,” he said. “Behind the scenes, they ensured that Walters' policy wouldn't pass, but they don't want to come out and walk the board with voters.”
Walters has gained national attention for his efforts to introduce religious and Trump brand conservative leadership into public schools, and has attracted praise from religious conservatives and those who are strong in line with Trump. He moved to buy the Bible for public schools, create religious charter schools, and change the state's curriculum to teach “contradictions” in the 2020 election.
“My point is that Walters needs to stop working with the president's attention,” says Mark McBride, a former Republican member at the Oklahoma State Capitol, who is working on education issues. “I hope Gov. Stitt continues to push the superintendent back.”
Stitt intervened three members of the state board of education in February on behalf of a new member allied with him. He said in an interview that he added a fourth to fill the empty position soon, giving a majority on the board.
Education activist Kendra Wesson is one of the board members who voted for the citizenship proposal, and has been replaced by Stadt. She said the actual text of the rules, including the collection of total data, was misunderstood by proponents.
“There's nothing in the rules about chasing children,” she said, adding that it's about helping schools and teachers educate students who arrive to speak different languages. “I think it's very important to provide resources.”
Wesson said he offered her a seat on another board when the governor called her and told her he would replace her with a board of directors. However, she said it was given a “ultimatum for publicly denying Ryan Walters.”
A spokesman for the governor said Wesson had never been asked to deny Walters. Despite this, she currently works for the Education Advisory Board, which Walters started.
