The National Education Association was the host webinar on Wednesday encouraging teachers to stand up to President-elect Donald Trump on immigration reform, saying their goal is to make students who are in the country illegally “feel less afraid.”
“There are laws right now that prohibit immigration agents from coming onto school property, and various people in the Trump administration would like to overturn that,” said Jennifer Berkshire, author of The Education Wars.
Trump said he would focus on targeted deportations of violent criminals who entered the country illegally, including the first capture of terrorists and cartels.
Rebecca S. Pringle, president of the National Education Association, speaks on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 22, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
“Teachers, including aspiring educators, have a real role to play in talking to these groups and finding out … what we can do, within the school space, to try to make these kids feel less scared,” Berkshire said.
She also called out Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, who he said in September that he wanted to put a Bible in every school in his state.
“The reality is that, like, whether it’s book bans or extremist candidates for schools, school boards or a Ryan Walters-type person who, you know, insists that teachers teach from the Bible or lose their certification, uh, more and more, this it really works like a circus,” Berkshire said.
The National Education Association is an organization with over 3 million members. Their president, Rebecca S. Pringle, has previously called Trump administration “tyrannical, lying and corrupt”.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters discusses the use of the Bible in schools in an interview with CNN anchor Pamela Brown. (CNN screenshot)
Chelsie Acosta, chairwoman of the NEA’s Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s board, said she was “concerned” about her community.
“When I started … with the ACLU, it was when Trump came in his first term, so it’s a little bit bittersweet that … here we are in his second term,” Acosta said. “I didn’t think we’d … be here, but here we are, and I think a lot of us are worried about our own communities and our students.”
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The webinar was opened by Caitlin Ehlers, a member of the NEA’s Aspiring Educators Program and board director for the Student Washington Education Association, who gave a big shoutout.
“We begin by acknowledging that we meet on the traditional lands of many indigenous peoples, the land on which the participants in this call live and work. I am speaking to all of you from the traditional lands of the Duwamish people, governed by the Treaty of Point Elliot,” Ehlers said.
“We honor the First People of this land and all their elders, past, present and future, and are invited to learn and share what we have learned about tribal history, culture and contributions that have been suppressed in telling the story of America.”
On January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. (Trump-Vance Transition Team)
