Who Is Joseph Turner? Activist Wants To Ban Illegal Immigrants From Some Public Schools

President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies influenced a Southern California activist to push for a law that would prevent undocumented immigrants from attending public schools in the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, ABC 7 reported Monday.

Joseph Turner, a 39-year-old Torrance resident who previously resided in San Bernardino, told the Los Angeles Times he’s been "reinvigorated" by Trump, which led him to aim for a small school district hoping it will carry out his initiatives to a national level.

Read: ICE Arrest: Undocumented California Father Snatched By Agents While Dropping Off Daughter At School

"This initiative would prohibit illegal aliens from attending public schools in the Yucaipa-Calimesa school district," Turner told ABC 7. "It would also prohibit children of illegal aliens from attending for free they would have to pay a non-resident tuition fee."

Turner, who used his nonprofit group American Children First to file his petition Monday, needs about 3,200 signatures for the ballot in California.

His reasons for targeting the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified is that it is in a conservative area with a significant amount of Trump supporters. Turner said he hopes "the audience will be very receptive" to his plan.

"We have 10 percent of the students in the school district that are English learners," Turner told ABC 7.

In 2012, approximately 13 percent of K-12 students in California had an undocumented parent, according to the Pew Research Center.

Under the Supreme Court’s Plyler v. Doe decision in 1982, it stated school districts that canceled out registration to children who are in the country illegally are violating the Equal Protection Clause, which is part of the constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. It also noted school districts are supposed to educate all student living in the U.S.

However, Turner does not believe in the Supreme Court’s ruling about their stance on undocumented children.

"We can no longer subjugate the education and future of our children," Turner wrote in the appeal. "We will no longer take care of those who have broken our laws and seek to prosper at the expense of our children."

"Their future should not be in this country. We shouldn't be planning on them being here," Turner told ABC 7.