Teachers Are Fomenting Anti-ICE Hysteria

Alleged ICE activity at schools is being used as a pretext to indoctrinate children.

Bianca Seward/HPM

Employees of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been busy lately, working to fulfill their mandate to remove undocumented immigrants. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of ICE’s activities is its alleged presence in public schools across the nation.

But is ICE actually going into schools?

Absolutely not. While there are a few reports of parents being detained at bus stops near schools and images of ICE agents tackling people on school grounds, they are not actually entering the schools.

Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security Department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, explains that agents’ actions in and around schools are intended to protect children.

“ICE is not going to schools to arrest children—we are protecting children. Criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

McLaughlin adds, “An arrest might be made at school if a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a school, or a child sex offender is working as an employee. But this has not happened.”

Nonetheless, teachers are organizing their students to battle ICE.

As reported by Erika Sanzi, director of communications at Defending Education, teachers in Minnesota have been coordinating student protests on social media.

“There is nothing organic about these events, and despite claims to the contrary, they are almost never spontaneous expressions of student speech. They are basically field trips without the parent permission slip,” Sanzi said.

In Oregon, a video shows kindergarten students participating in a protest, and numerous schools nationwide have preemptively canceled classes so students could protest.

The teachers’ unions have also seized on ICE’s alleged misdeeds to indoctrinate students.

According to materials obtained by Defending Education, the United Teachers Los Angeles gave a presentation last year titled “Preparing for ICE at your school” that urged its members to engage in political activism and suggested using school resources to thwart ICE operations.

The UTLA documents guide educators on how to resist the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and urge parents and teachers to collaborate on resistance efforts. It is part of the union’s broader efforts to “build a comprehensive response to immigration enforcement.”

One slide shared with educators reads, “The fight is far from over. We need to keep fighting together!” Another slide titled “What can you do?” instructs educators on how to respond to ICE operations.

Ron Gochez, a teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School in Los Angeles, a winner of the California Teachers Association “Human Rights Award,” and a spokesman for Unión del Barrio, a Chicano Marxist revolutionary political organization, is at the forefront of the anti-ICE movement in L.A.

During a recent ICE protest in Los Angeles, Gochez told his compadres, “Don’t forget where you’re standing. This is South Central Los Angeles. They (ICE) are not the only ones with guns in this city. Don’t forget that. And I don’t say that because I’m calling for violence; I’m saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen. The people have every right to defend themselves.”

Revolutionary activities are hardly new to Gochez. In August 2024, a UTLA meeting focused on “How to be a teacher & an organizer... and NOT get fired,” during which Gochez outlined stealth methods for indoctrinating his students. He described transporting busloads of students to an anti-Israel rally during the school day without arousing suspicion.

“A lot of us that have been to those (protest) actions have brought our students. Now, I don’t take the students in my personal car,” Gochez said. Then, referring to the Los Angeles Unified School District, he explained: “I have members of our organization who are not LAUSD employees. They take those students, and I just happen to be at the same place and the same time with them.”

Not surprisingly, the National Education Association aligns with various revolutionary groups, including the Sunrise Movement, which is funded by several left-wing billionaires, including George Soros. The group began with a focus on environmental issues but is now dedicated to virtually every radical proposition imaginable, with a particular emphasis on brainwashing students and organizing within schools.

In January, the NEA, under the guise of protecting children, blasted out an anti-ICE message across various social media platforms, saying, “As thousands of ICE agents carry out aggressive enforcement in Minnesota, hundreds of teachers, counselors, parents, school staff, activists, and union leaders are organizing and showing up in powerful ways—from delivering groceries and schoolwork to organizing solidarity actions and mass protests calling for ICE to leave schools and neighborhoods.”

Pushback against the blatant propaganda is mounting, however.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared that protests should be considered unlawful. The state education agency has warned that it could impose sanctions and investigate schools that facilitate “inappropriate political activism.”

“Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune for criminal behavior,” Abbott told reporters.

In Florida, the state’s Education Commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, said schools have a responsibility to ensure that protests do not disrupt school operations and suggested that discipline would be warranted for staff who facilitate or encourage protests during classroom hours.

“We will not tolerate educators encouraging school protests and pushing their political views onto students, especially ones that disparage law enforcement,” Kamoutsas said on social media.

Some Indiana school leaders are also calling for discipline after hundreds of students walked out of class to protest, a move that Republican Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith criticized as unacceptable.

Many parents are unhappy with the protests. One outraged Washington mother, seen in a video, has informed school officials that she is withdrawing her daughter from the district after teachers encouraged students to walk out to protest ICE activities.

When children go off to school each day, teachers act in loco parentis. Unfortunately, these days, loco has a whole different meaning.

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Larry Sand is a retired 28-year classroom teacher who served as president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He now focuses on raising awareness of our failing education system.