Districts join battle against Trump’s plan
Effort to defund sanctuary cities having chilling effect on students, officials say
Dozens of school districts and education organizations in the Bay Area and throughout California have joined an escalating legal battle against the Trump administration’s ongoing push to defund so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
The group on Wednesday filed an amicus brief backing Santa Clara County in its lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities.
“The executive order transforms schools from inclusive, safe spaces to places of fear and uncertainty, ultimately undermining our entire public education system,” the brief said. “By expansively targeting any ‘state’ or ‘political subdivision of a state,’ the executive order is causing sweeping, profound and irreparable harm to our children and their families, our public education system, and ultimately, the future of our country.”
Sixteen of the 18 school districts that signed onto the amicus brief are in the Bay Area.
Educators throughout the region have expressed particular concern for students with parents or other family members who are undocumented immigrants, saying many kids show up to school with fears that these family members will be deported under the Trump administration.
“This impedes teachers’ abilities to educate. Not just immigrant youth but all members of the school,” said attorney Darren Teshima, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe law firm, which filed the brief on behalf of the school districts pro bono. “The stakes really could not be higher in this case. We’re talking about the future of our country, of our community.”
Stanley Rose, superintendent of the Santa Clara Unified School District, said the district has seen an increased level of fear since the presidential election in Novem- ber. The school board voted to sign onto the amicus brief earlier this month.
“(Students) may not be afraid so much at school, but they bring the fear of the life around them to school,” he said. “It has caused some students and families to go underground.”
The Oakland Unified School District also signed onto the brief, saying in an email, “The district’s decision is consistent with and in support of its prior resolution declaring itself a sanctuary school district that supports all of Oakland’s students and families, regardless of immigration status.”
Not everyone is on board — some residents say the county and school districts should be putting time and energy into programs that benefit all students instead of supporting students whose family members immigrated to the U.S. illegally. Limited educational resources should not be drained for these purposes, they argue.
In its lawsuit filed in February, Santa Clara County argues that the executive order is an unconstitutional form of retaliation against jurisdictions that decline to comply with federal immigration enforcement.
Dozens of other cities, agencies and nonprofits also filed amicus briefs Wednesday in support of the lawsuit, asking the federal government to block the executive order.
The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, along with Cooley LLP, filed an amicus brief in the county’s sanctuary jurisdiction case on behalf of community-based nonprofit organizations and associations of nonprofits in the health and human services sector.
Several Bay Area cities — among them Oakland, Morgan Hill, Berkeley and Santa Clara — were among jurisdictions nationwide that also filed an amicus brief in the county’s lawsuit.