Change to executive order lets foreign teachers fill CCSD vacancies

WASHINGTON — Under bipartisan pressure from Congress and federal courts, the Trump administration is allowing foreign exchange teachers into Nevada and other states despite a presidential order that had barred immigrants with special visas from entry.

For Clark County, that means about 100 foreign exchange teachers from the Philippines will help fill the educational needs in the Las Vegas area, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

House Democrats and Republicans from other states railed against President Donald Trump after he issued a proclamation in June that banned foreign nationals from entering the United States legally through the J-1 visa program for teachers.

The lawmakers, including Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., noted that while the president banned the entry of needed teachers in his immigration proclamation, Trump also declared teachers “essential workers” as the pandemic threatened to close schools nationally.

In October, a federal judge in California ordered the State Department to partially lift the ban on some visas covered by the president’s proclamation.

“The Trump administration tried to use the pandemic as a guise for enacting unnecessary immigration restrictions,” Titus said. “This cruel anti-immigrant agenda prevented the Clark County School District from hiring around 100 teachers to fill key vacancies, especially in special education classes.”

School districts in several states had used the J-1 visa program to help augment teaching staff and fill special positions. North Carolina is one state that has relied on the State Department program to provide personnel for teaching needs.

Educators and lawmakers argued that the visa program was essential for providing instructors in highneed subject matter through cultural exchange programs.

In a July 7 letter to Trump, Titus and Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said the Clark County School District had hired 95 foreign teachers before the proclamation.

“Without the 95 planned additions to its staff, the district will now have approximately 772 licensed vacancies, 188 of which are special education teachers,” Titus and Lee said.

Over several months of legal wrangling and court rulings, the State Department finally allowed the teachers hired by Clark County to enter the state, Titus said.