NEA and AFT Instruct members to wear blue in solidarity with anti-Ice movements

Over the past several weeks, educators across the country have received coordinated action alerts from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the two largest teachers unions in the nation, urging them to participate in an explicitly political campaign targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These were not optional resources or neutral guidance. They were calls to political action.

This is nothing new.

I saw it all firsthand as a public school teacher in California during Trump’s first term: teachers turning their classrooms into far-left activist safe havens. I watched them lead students in walkout protests over Trump’s policies. Classrooms were plastered with Women’s March posters. Students were given lessons that explicitly supported the Black Lives Matter movement and even the call to defund the police.

Their excuse for all this political activism in the classroom? The left does not frame this as politics. They have become experts at moralizing their agenda. Their positions are not presented as policy options with pros and cons, but as the only morally upright thing a “good person” believes in. In that framework, disagreement is not just wrong; it is harmful, bigoted, immoral, and even evil. Thus, in their minds, they are not engaged in politics, but rather just being moral, “good” people, and passing down those positive values to kids. Who could argue against that? This ridiculous justification shuts down debate and justifies activism in spaces that should be politically neutral, especially public school classrooms.

And now we see the same playbook at work on the subject of immigration enforcement. Protesting ICE is not presented as a political act. It is presented as the compassionate thing to do. Disagreeing with them? You must hate Hispanic people, you bigot!

Teachers are not told they are opposing a federal law enforcement agency. They are told they are protecting children. Once you frame it that way, resistance to these anti-ICE movements becomes cruelty towards immigrant children. Nevermind that the most famous Mexican activist, Cesar Chavez, loudly opposed illegal immigration. None of that pesky logic stuff matters.

The latest anti-ICE messaging was very straightforward: Wear blue to signal to their students and fellow staff where they stand on this issue. Post selfies. Use hashtags. Host discussions. Participate in protests. Push back against ICE. Schools are considered “sensitive locations” that must be defended from federal law enforcement, regardless of context, warrants, or ongoing investigations. Just imagine the hostile workforce this creates for any conservatives left in public education.

One NEA email promoted a nationwide “Day of Action to Keep ICE Out of Schools,” instructing educators and supporters to wear blue and flood social media with the hashtag #ICEOutSchools. The email claimed that ICE’s presence was “traumatizing students” and “disrupting learning,” and asserted that ICE “does not belong in our schools or communities.” No distinction was made between routine welfare checks, criminal investigations, or enforcement actions involving court orders. The entire agency was cast as an illegitimate threat.

Let me make one thing clear. There has not been a single ICE raid on a school campus anytime during the Trump Administration. Illegal alien students aren’t being snatched from the classroom, despite how the mainstream media and teachers unions are framing this possibility, which is just not grounded in reality. The irrational fear has been fed regardless of facts.

The email did not stop at symbolic gestures. Teachers were encouraged to host conversations and local events focused on “civil and human rights” and on how educators can “support immigrant students and families.” In plain terms, that means teachers were being nudged to frame immigration enforcement as an abuse of power and to position themselves as advocates against it, inside their classrooms.

Are we inching closer and closer to mass obstruction of justice here?

Another email went out to all AFT members from their President, Randi Weingarten, dramatically escalating the rhetoric. The email accused federal agents of “terrorizing Minnesotans,” described ICE officers as “masked aggressors,” and alleged door-to-door abductions without warrants. It referenced flash-bangs, tear gas, and weapons being brandished on school property, without providing context. An illegal immigrant recently took ICE on a chase that ended near a school, and some school staff allegedly tried to interfere with their arrest. All of this was done after students were dismissed. Again, this was not an ICE operation to deport illegal students from school campuses, which does not happen.

Weingarten’s message explicitly asked teachers and union members nationwide to wear blue in solidarity with Minnesota protests, to amplify social media campaigns, and to pressure Congress to restrict ICE operations in “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals, and churches. The email also promoted union resources for those “targeted by ICE” and invited members to attend webinars on how to respond to immigration enforcement.

At no point did the message acknowledge the legal obligation of ICE to enforce federal law. At no point did it distinguish between lawful enforcement actions and misconduct. The framing was absolute. ICE was portrayed as violent, and teachers were called to be frontline defenders of a political struggle in the classroom.

Teachers hold a unique position of trust.

Parents send their children to school to learn math, history, science, and literacy. They do not send them to be drafted into political movements or to watch their teachers role-play as activists against federal agencies (at least most conservative parents). When educators publicly align themselves with partisan protest campaigns, particularly ones involving emotionally charged claims and disputed narratives, they are no longer teaching. They are recruiting.

This is how classrooms quietly become hotbeds for left-wing political activism, all while teachers insist they are not being political at all. It is no surprise we are now seeing high school students across the country skipping class to protest ICE, with some even leading hallway and football field chants of “F#ck ICE.” Left-leaning teachers are leading the charge to normalize far-left activism in schools as virtue and obedience to federal law as oppression, so it isn’t surprising to see students treat the disruption of learning as a civic duty.

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Here are the action alerts:

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/nea-and-aft-instruct-members-to-wear-blue-in-solidarity-with-anti-ice-movements/