By Justin Hsieh, Staff Writer
Teachers from across the United States and Mexico gathered on Sunday in El Paso, Texas for a ‘Teach-In-for-Freedom’ demonstration calling for the release, improved treatment and family reunification of the thousands of children held in immigration detention camps in the U.S.
The 10-hour event, held in El Paso’s San Jacinto Plaza, was organized by the group Teachers Against Child Detention (TACD), led by 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning. The event featured speeches and lessons about immigration by educators from every U.S. state, as well as educators from Juarez, Mexico, former U.S. Secretary of Education John King and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
“Today’s event brings us hope for our nation, for our communities, and for our children,” said Manning at the beginning of the event. “Today we stand up for the more than 11,000 immigrant children incarcerated in detention centers across the United States… Today is our opportunity to connect our history with our present; to learn from it and to change.”
The Teach-In comes amidst ongoing criticism of conditions at temporary detention centers in the U.S., including overcrowding, inadequate education and healthcare services, inadequate legal services and lack of regulation and inspection in accordance with state child welfare laws. Protests starting last year led to the shutdown of a major “tent city” in Tornillo, Texas in mid-January. Groups including TACD have continued to call for the closure of a similar facility in Homestead, Florida.
“We call on the U.S. government to end the detention and criminalization of immigrant children and their families. We call, instead, for the government to protect immigrant children, in strict compliance with the Flores decree, ” reads the TACD website, referring to an immigration policy established in 1997 that defines requirements for the release and care of migrant children.
Manning and TACD cite all U.S. teachers’ legal status as mandatory reporters of child abuse in arguing that it is their duty to protest family separation, child welfare violations, and prolonged detention of children.
“All children deserve to be in school. All children have endless potential and deserve to reach that potential. All children deserve to be free,” said Manning.
