Across the country, immigrant communities are facing heightened fear and uncertainty.
Under the new Trump administration, policies that once kept schools, hospitals and places of worship off limits for immigration enforcement are shifting, leaving many worried about safety in spaces meant to serve as a refuge.
Educators, health care professionals and community leaders are grappling with how best to support and protect their students, patients and neighbors in this ever-changing landscape.
One of the people leading the charge to defend these communities is Jessica Tang, president of the Massachusetts branch of the American Federation of Teachers . She was recently named chair of the newly formed Resistance Committee and joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about the position and the Committee’s mission. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: First off, we’re starting from a blank slate. Tell us what the Resistance Committee is.
Jessica Tang: Sure. So, “Resistance Committee” is pretty much shorthand for “Committee to Help Everyone Have a Better Life.” I know that sounds very general, but AFT represents not just public education but also health care professionals and nurses.
Particularly in this moment, where — you know, it began with hospitals and places of worship and schools being removed as sensitive sites — we really had to think about how we protect our students, families and patients.
As an educator, I know that part of our responsibility is to keep our students safe and ensure that they are going to safe and welcoming schools. That is, bottom line, what this is about. It’s really about fighting for a better life for everyone and fighting against the policies that are harming our students and our public education system.
Rath: In terms of protecting these individuals and communities, the groups that you mentioned is a diverse group. We’re talking about schools, hospitals and other places. In terms of resistance, or in terms of protecting the people that you’re all separately protecting, what are the commonalities in terms of finding strategies to do that?
Tang: One is actually just really knowing what’s happening. Unfortunately, [Trump’s] executive orders and the blizzard of chaos and confusion that has occurred as a result of these executive orders and policies have created a lot of instability and fear. That’s what we are trying to address — what actually is the impact because there are a lot of real, substantive impacts.
We can talk about our students who may be undocumented or have family members who are undocumented. You know, the first piece is making sure that they know what their rights are. And also: What are the responsibilities of educators if ICE does go to a school, for example, and being very clear about what are the policies and actions we can take? What are the resources? And then, also really thinking about the psychological impacts of the chaos that’s being created. That’s certainly one piece of it.
But, again, there are practical implications about what’s happening right now because, ultimately, we’re seeing all this chaos because the administration is trying to cut money for basic needs for students in schools in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
That’s why we’re taking a lot of different actions. The AFT, in conjunction with other unions and groups, filed a federal lawsuit just yesterday under the Privacy Act to expose the theft of data that’s happening right now.
Again, that’s part of the work we need to do. A lot of our community members and our families and students may not realize that, because Elon Musk has been able to get into our federal departments, he’s hacking Social Security Numbers, kids’ IEPs — which are private information about students with disabilities — home addresses and the 4.5 million people who applied for loans. We don’t know what’s happening with that information, but a lot of people may not even know that that actually even happened because there’s been so much chaos and confusion. [Editor’s note: The Department of Education and the Department of Government Efficiency did not immediately respond to a request for comment about these allegations.]
That’s a lot of the work we’re doing — how do we help get out information about what’s happening, what the impact is, and then, how can you protect yourself? And, for us [educators], how do we protect our students? And then, the path forward — what we do believe in. That is, this basic premise that public education is a pathway to opportunity, and we have to protect that.
Rath: My head is spinning thinking about all of these intersecting things you’re talking about and all the things you’re having to deal with. It feels like you’re having to build the airplane while you’re in the air, figuring out how to deal with all of these different things. I mean, we’re not just talking about Massachusetts — it’s on a national scale. You have a lot of people to coordinate with.
Tang: That’s right. I mean, the good thing, though, is that unions are all about solidarity and teamwork and working together collaboratively. So, I’m not alone on my committee — I have leaders from all different states.
And that’s important because it’s not just about blue states like Massachusetts. It’s also about purple states and red states. What are the best strategies and the best ways to ensure that we stay focused on our vision? But also, [what are] the different ways, depending on your local context, that you can best protect your students, your families, your patients? Then, also, what are your best strategies to proactively fight for that better future at the same time?
It’s a lot, but it’s what we are about as unionists and educators. That’s why we come together in unions — to use our collective voice and our collective power. I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues who have been fighting these fights in red states, for example, for many, many years.
Rath: Having just met for the first time, I think it’s hard to think beyond even the next month, but what’s the next month or so going to be like for you?
Tang: Well, we already have a lot of things in motion — I mentioned the lawsuit yesterday. We certainly are trying to continue to get the “ Know Your Rights ” information out to our families and students and ways that educators can fulfill their responsibility and obligations to create safe and welcoming schools for all of our students.We have to analyze the impacts of the potential executive orders and, again, how they may impact our students.
I think part of it is just education. A lot of people don’t really even know what the Department of Education does, for example, and what kinds of impacts the dismantling of funds from the federal government would entail. We have to help do that education.
So many schools have Title I funding , and so [cutting] the funding would result in a lot of cuts to positions in schools. And in Massachusetts, we already have a funding crisis here, right? It would take away grants for career technical vocational schools. It would take away funding for our English learners and our students with disabilities. You know, we’re talking about our schools for the blind and deaf and hard of hearing.
There are real impacts, and so one piece of it is definitely education. But also, we’re taking action. There are going to be some actions around protecting higher education and the impacts of NIH funding that has been under threat and impacts on cancer research in our institutions. There are lots of them in Massachusetts, but again, this is nationwide that these actions will be happening.
We’re also planning for actions around the school issues on March 4. So that’s all on the horizon in just the next few weeks.
