Oklahoma
Oklahoma schools leader Ryan Walters moves to require students to prove citizenship
Families enrolling children in Oklahoma public schools will have to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship under new rules approved Tuesday by the state’s education board.
The proposed regulation, which must be approved by the governor and the Legislature, would require school districts to track the number of students who cannot verify their immigration status and report those figures to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
“Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that; it is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools,” Ryan Walters, the state superintendent, said at the Tuesday meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education.
Outside the building in Oklahoma City, dozens of students protested Walters’ immigration policies and called to keep deportation agents off school campuses.
Walters — who gained a reputation in office for focusing on culture war issues and inviting right-wing influencers into state government — met resistance last year when he said he intended to ask school districts to help his office calculate the cost of illegal immigration on the public education system.
A dozen districts told NBC News in August that they would not check the immigration status of their students, with many citing a desire not to violate Supreme Court precedent, nor discourage foreign-born families from enrolling children in school.
Walters said Tuesday that Oklahoma spent $474 million to educate children of undocumented immigrants under the Biden administration. That figure came from an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform — a right-wing nonprofit founded by the late activist John Tanton, who promoted eugenics and opposed nonwhite migration to the U.S. — and was based on an estimate the group did using census data from 2020.
“You have to have the data around where your kids are coming from,” Walters said at the state board meeting. “We will make sure that President Trump and his administration have this information.”
Melissa Lujan, an immigrant rights attorney in Oklahoma City, said she has received at least six calls from clients this week asking what documentation they need to show at their children’s schools — under the mistaken assumption that the rules are already in effect, and in light of Walters’ statement that he would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to collect children from public schools for deportation.
“They’re freaking out,” Lujan said.
In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that the government cannot prevent children of undocumented immigrants from attending public school. The vote was 5-4, but the dissent did not advocate for excluding undocumented immigrant children from public schools.
A decade ago, federal courts struck down a similar Alabama law to collect the immigration status of school children.
Kit Johnson, a University of Oklahoma law professor who specializes in immigration law, predicts that the rules advanced by Walters will meet a similar fate when they are inevitably challenged in court.
“This one will be found unconstitutional,” Johnson said. “Even with Walters saying, ‘Oh, we’re just data collecting’ — if it’s going to chill the opportunity for children to have an equal access to education, it is not allowed.”
Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, said the group is considering litigation to block the rules if the governor and Legislature approve them, but that doesn’t provide a lot of comfort in the near term for immigrant families.
“Just the threat of this causes harm, and we believe that is the intention — to scare students from going to school,” she said.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentry Drummond “believes it is lawful to request such documentation” of a child’s immigration status, because the rule stipulates “failure to produce the material does not preclude enrollment,” a spokesman for his office said Tuesday.
Gov. Kevin Stitt and Republican legislative leaders did not respond to requests for comment on the immigration rules.
PORTAL TRACKER
Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?
Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.
Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State
Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.
He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.
Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.
Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.
Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech
Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.
He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.
Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.
He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.
Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech
Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.
He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.
Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.
He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.
Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.
Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.
News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.
“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.
Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.
He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.
He has concerns about what comes next.
“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.
The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.
“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.
Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.
Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.
A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.
Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.
Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.
At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.
However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.
Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.
Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.
Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.
Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
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