AFT President Weingarten Speaks Out on ICE

The following letter is from AFT President Weingarten:  The horrific shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, followed by ICE activity at schools and the unjust ICE detention of an AFT member and use of pepper spray on school property where students and teachers were gathered, has understandably shaken our members and our communities. Moments like this test whether institutions protect people—or put them at risk. Our union is clear: Schools should be places of learning and care, not fear.

I’ve been in close contact with Education Minnesota, and so many of our colleagues in Minnesota. I want to make sure you—as leaders of our union—know what we’ve done and how we’re helping our members there. We’ve seen incredible work from locals throughout the country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to Chicago to New York, and just as we’ve supported them, we’re giving our members in Minnesota our full support.

When ICE detained one of our members at a school during parent drop-off, our local sprang into action. This member is a U.S. citizen, and ICE had no right to take the individual. Thanks to swift collective action, the educator was released. When our members are detained—which has happened before—we want to support them and our local unions.

I issued a statement demanding that ICE stay out of schools. When the Trump administration began allowing ICE to enter schools, hospitals and churches, we pushed back.We sent a letter demanding that they respect the long-standing protections for sensitive locations. ICE’s presence in our schools has made our communities less safe, not more. As we saw clearly in Minnesota, reckless and unchecked operations are endangering the safety and well-being of students, educators and families. That’s why ICE must stay away from our schools.

We’re also taking this fight to court.The AFT is a plaintiff in a nationwide lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end protections for sensitive locations like schools and hospitals. We are seeking to block and overturn this policy because it makes communities less safe and interferes with our members’ ability to do their jobs.

And we are all learning from each other—from the building of safe corridors to the use of whistles, to educating about knowing our rights—how to protect our kids and communities from this misuse of ICE.

In fact, we are planning another webinar on Jan. 28 about what we’ve learned, sharing best practices, including how to protect our kids and other aspects of immigration, Please save the date. We will share more information with you next week.

Today, we’re emailing our activists and asking them to contact their member of Congress to demand action to keep ICE out of schools. Please share it with your members as a way to show support for our members in Minneapolis. You can also show your direct support for Education Minnesota by signing its petition.

Yesterday many of us were in Portland for one of our leader meetings. We held a local vigil, after immigration agents shot two people here in Oregon yesterday and in solidarity with communities in Minnesota. There were more than 1,000 peaceful vigils and actions this weekend to honor those hurt and killed by ICE.

We have resources through Share My Lesson, which can be found here and here.

And please check out our immigration page at aft.org/immigration for resources you can use and share with your members.

If you have any questions or ideas, as always, please feel free to reach out.

In unity,Randi WeingartenAFT President

PS: Here are a few pictures from our vigil in Portland.