Two of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions sued the Trump administration Tuesday, arguing that a decision to allow immigration enforcement actions at schools, churches and other previously protected sites has terrorized students, driven some to stop attending classes and violated federal law.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers joined educators from an Oregon preschool in an amended complaint filed in federal court in Eugene, Oregon, challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s rescission of so-called "sensitive locations" protections. The lawsuit contends the change, announced a day after President Donald Trump took office, was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act and that the opening of houses of worship to enforcement also chills First Amendment rights.
The amended suit describes several incidents in which masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol made arrests in or near school property. In one Oregon case, agents in masks broke a car window and dragged a student’s father from his car shortly after the child had been dropped off, prompting the preschool to go into lockdown. Teachers said they played music so children could not hear the commotion outside. Teacher Lauren Fong, who teaches the child whose father was arrested that day, told reporters she was troubled by the decision to confront the father in the school parking lot, which she described as private property. "Why a school? Why not someplace else, any place else?" Fong said.
The complaint also recounts an incident in Los Angeles in which masked border patrol officers approached a car parked next to a high school, ordered a 15-year-old boy with disabilities out at gunpoint while searching for a man with alleged gang ties, and handcuffed the teenager before releasing him when they realized he was not the person they sought.
Union leaders and teachers who joined the lawsuit submitted sworn statements and testimonials describing heightened anxiety, decreased participation and falling attendance among students who are immigrants or children of immigrants. High school teachers in Pennsylvania and Virginia reported some students stopped showing up in the spring because they feared being arrested on campus. A speech pathologist at a California elementary school said immigrant parents were reluctant to sign their children up for special education services for fear of providing more information to school officials. A Texas teacher of English learners said enrollment in her classes had fallen sharply.
"America’s classrooms must be safe and welcoming places of learning and discovery," said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, in a statement accompanying the filing.
For nearly three decades, immigration agents were guided to avoid sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and places of worship except under extraordinary circumstances. A 2021 Department of Homeland Security memo cited in the lawsuit said the department could "accomplish (its) enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship." The suit says the administration’s decision to rescind those protections violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was implemented without adequate explanation or consideration of foreseeable harms.
Officials who rescinded the guidance argued agents needed flexibility. In a statement reported in the complaint, agency officials said the change was intended to prevent criminals from avoiding arrest by hiding in schools or churches: "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest."
The amended complaint joins an earlier lawsuit filed in April by an Oregon farmworker union and a group of churches that challenged the same policy change, asserting that opening houses of worship to immigration enforcement chills religious exercise and deters attendance. The teachers’ unions said the new filing expands the challenge to include educators and school staff who say the policy is harming students’ education and well-being.
A request for comment was sent to the Department of Homeland Security. The unions seek declaratory and injunctive relief to restore the sensitive-locations policy and to prevent enforcement actions that they say discriminate against and harm immigrant students and communities.
The legal fight highlights tensions between immigration enforcement priorities and community efforts to ensure access to education and social services. It also raises questions about how federal agencies must consider the broader impacts of policy changes when they rescind long-standing guidance affecting schools, health care facilities and places of worship.
The unions represent millions of educators and school employees nationwide and said they will continue to document incidents they say demonstrate the harmful effects of enforcement activities near schools. The case is expected to draw attention from immigrant advocates, faith leaders and public-education officials concerned about attendance, student safety and access to services.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.