Photo: Digital Vision
Multiple teachers unions have recently released pamphlets instructing their teachers on how to hamper immigration enforcement and create "I.C.E.-Free safe zones" inside their schools. Teachers who go out of their way to impede I.C.E. enforcement could face charges.
Both the NEA and AFT, two of the biggest teachers unions in the country, have released these guides, but Senior Customs and Border Protection advisor Ron Vitiello warned that they could run afoul of the law. He said, "If you harbor someone who's in the country illegally from authorities who are trying to enforce the law, then yes, you could be prosecuted for it."
Vitiello thinks that this is really just an effort by these teachers unions to virtue signal, because there haven't been widespread enforcement actions taken at schools. He said, "If we had I.C.E. agents actually in a school, anywhere in the United States within the last 8 days, we'd all know about it. They're trying to make something out of nothing."
He also expressed concern about what sort of indoctrination could be going on in schools where teachers are pushing this. He finds it sad that "people who call themselves educators are putting themselves or their schools, and the students presumably, in a situation in which they're ignoring federal law."