Teachers sue over Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying students are staying home

WASHINGTON (AP) — Labour unions representing millions of educators and school employees are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over its immigration crackdown, saying arrests near school campuses are terrorising children and their teachers, leading some students to drop out.

At the start of Trump’s second term, his Republican administration said it would allow immigration arrests at schools — long considered off limits.

That violated the law, argues the lawsuit from the two largest US teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Also joining the lawsuit are educators from an Oregon preschool where masked agents broke a car window and dragged a student’s father from his car shortly after the child had been dropped off.

The arrival of police prompted the school to go into a lockdown, with teachers playing music so students couldn’t hear the commotion outside.

Teacher Lauren Fong, who teaches the child whose father was arrested that day, said she was troubled by the decision to confront the father in the school parking lot, which is private property.

“Why a school? Why not some place else, any place else?” Fong said in an interview. “It was in the parking lot, where it could be witnessed by so many young children.”

The educators are joining a lawsuit filed in April by an Oregon farmworker union and a group of churches, challenging the Trump administration’s decision to open houses of worship to immigration enforcement as well.

The amended lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Eugene, Oregon.

A request for comment was sent to the Department of Homeland Security.

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