We’re seeing a wide gap between federal priorities and educator realities.
Educators in San Diego are experiencing the daily consequences of underfunded public schools: An ongoing Special Education staffing crisis, pay cuts to our lowest-paid educators, and a cost of living that makes educators and families alike struggle to stay in our communities. Yet the most recent federal budget included further cuts to education while shifting massive funding increases to immigration enforcement. With billionaire tech companies making money off the deportation machine, this is all part of a growing pattern of diverting resources away from schools and working families to line the pockets of billionaires.
This Labor Day, SDEA members and thousands of other San Diegans asked: Which side are YOU on?
SDEA educators are on the side of our students.
Stability for students and communities is one of the three pillars that SDEA and thousands of other educators across the state are fighting for. In January 2025, at the very beginning of this administration’s immigration crackdown, SDEA representatives voted to explicitly clarify that safe and welcoming schools mean protecting our immigrant students. Since SDEA educators have fought hard for District leadership that shares their priorities, SDUSD leaders have also been clear about their commitment to protecting students on campus. California State Law, our SDEA contract, and District policy do provide some overlapping protections to prevent ICE from accessing schools, if they operate within the law.
The reality: ICE raids are getting closer and closer to our schools.
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On August 14, a parent at Linda Vista Elementary was kidnapped while waiting to pick up their child – less than a block away from the school. Read local coverage here, and SDEA’s statement here.
- While there has been only one documented ICE arrest at an SDUSD school, similar detainments have happened across the region and beyond. iNewsSource is mapping ICE arrests of parents at schools in San Diego here.
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In the early hours of August 22, community members identified ICE vehicles in the parking lot of Herbert Ibarra Elementary. The community raised the alarm and shouted at the agents until they left. Read coverage here, and see video from Unión del Barrio below:
As union educators, we have the power to stand up with our communities.
“We’ve been talking a lot about keeping ICE off campus – that’s important, but that’s not enough. It doesn’t matter whether these kidnappings are happening on campus or during the day… when ICE is staging in our school parking lots, and when they’re kidnapping parents around the corner, up the street, or in our communities, this is a direct attack on our students. We stand in unity with all workers everywhere, and we demand that our communities, and especially our schools, be free of ICE terror. As labor activists standing in resistance to growing fascism in our country, we ask workers everywhere, which side are you on? Do you stand with our students, families and the workers that make up the backbone of our community or not? The time for labor to unite in defense of students is now! Schools need to be safe places to teach and to learn, and that’s something worth fighting for.” – SDEA Board Member Mary Ann Belmontez, August 22 press conference at Ibarra.
Our power: Solidarity with families, community members, and workers
On August 19, SDEA joined labor and community partners at a Nonviolent Direct Action Training to teach hundreds of San Diegans how to exercise their legal rights and flex their collective power. At the September 3 Rep Council, SDEA representatives heard from Unión del Barrio about how to identify ICE vehicles in their communities, and about their community patrols like the one that identified ICE at Ibarra recently.
Continued partnerships with labor and community will be essential in our ongoing fight for safe schools and communities. When our communities are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!
What can YOU do?
Attend your next union meetings, and keep showing up! This is essential in building to our peak collective power as a union, which we can use to stand up for our students and our communities. Here are three other things you can do today to specifically build capacity and solidarity with immigrant communities.
- Follow community organizations like Unión del Barrio or ARE who are offering local trainings.
- Check out this resource from NEA (particularly page 7-8) for key legal parameters when engaging in immigration advocacy.
- Build shared solidarity with union siblings with these urgent calls to action from Labor Day 2025 – it’s time to stand with all workers!
