The New Assault on Plyler v. Doe

Authors

• Cori Alonso-Yoder, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of LawFollow
• Gabriel Sanchez, University of New MexicoFollow

Abstract

The second Trump Administration has disregarded a history of bipartisan support in avoiding immigration enforcement actions in schools. Certain states have acted to further target children at school—advancing measures to exclude many from public education based on immigration status. While the Supreme Court in Plyler v. Doe affirmed the state and national interests in educating students regardless of status, the Heritage Foundation has called on states to pass legislation to overturn that decades-old precedent. While no state has yet adopted these measures, many states have tried, marking a new attack on the precedent in Plyler.

This Article builds on existing Plyler scholarship while surveying the current context underlying this return to a past trend in seeking to exclude immigrant children from education. The authors include legal and social sciences analyses to understand the current efforts to force a challenge to Plyler, as well as the potential impacts of its overturn.

Recommended Citation

Cori Alonso-Yoder & Gabriel Sanchez, The New Assault on Plyler v. Doe, 79 SMU L. Rev. 79 (2026)