NYC
Schools Must Be A Sanctuary for Immigrant and All Students
Keep I.C.E. Cops Out of Our Schools
By Class Struggle Education Workers/UFT
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| February 28 - Educators and students gather in Brooklyn outside meeting of Panel for Education Policy (PEP) to support and organize to defend our students |
The day after last November’s elections, a wave of fear
swept through the schools over the threat to undocumented immigrants. “Will I
be deported?” students asked teachers. School administrations and teachers unions
issued statements of support. But much more is needed. We need to prepare now
to defend our students and actively resist the threat of deportations with action.
Class Struggle Education Workers have demanded that the
NYC Department of Education refuse to hand over to federal authorities any
information on students’ immigration status, and that they delete any such
information as may exist. We demand that ICE police and immigration authorities
not be allowed on school premises under any circumstances, period. We call on
the UFT and other NYC unions to mobilize mass labor/immigrant action to stop
deportations.
Now there are important initiatives to build
school-wide committees. Pathways to Graduation, in District 79 has formed a
school-wide committee to defend immigrant rights and support our students. P2G
is a multi-sited program across the five boroughs, servicing students working
toward their TASC high school equivalency diploma, and increasing literacy
skills in English and bilingual programs.
P2G has students from 36 different countries. 31 percent of P2G students
are English Language Learners. 44 percent of the students were born outside the
U.S., and 51 percent of the students speak a language other than English at
home.
The UFT P2G Immigrant
Students Support Committee can serve to encourage similar efforts in other
schools, and will seek to join with initiatives in other unions. DC 37 Local
768 health care workers in city hospitals have likewise a committee to defend
the rights of immigrant patients, families and staff. Faced with directives to
reduce the numbers of undocumented immigrants in their facilities by 40%, they
have declared that they will continue to serve all those in need and will
oppose any attempt to use immigration status against them.
At Hunter College, part
of the City University of New York, a Committee to Defend Immigrants and
Students has been formed at the initiative of the CUNY Internationalist Clubs.
Our perspective is to
link teachers, parents, students and all school workers, including counselors,
paras, school aides, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and support
staff, with the power of the labor movement to STOP DEPORTATIONS. Rapid
response networks are needed in schools and neighborhoods. If students or their
families are picked up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.)
police, we must be prepared to flood the streets and shut down the schools.
We look not to the
administrators but call for worker/immigrant action against the bipartisan
capitalist attack on our students and their parents. The deportation of more
than 5 million immigrants by the Democratic Obama administration built up the
machinery that the Republican Trump is now wielding against our sister and brother
workers from around the world. The CSEW calls to break with the partner parties
of capital and to build a class-struggle workers party that will champion the
cause of all the oppressed.
Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed rather than, as it is at present, an instrument for the disciplining of labor in the interests of capital. See the CSEW program here.