Oregon’s largest teachers’ union will host several statewide trainings meant to teach school staff, families and community members how to keep students and families safe under increasingly aggressive federal immigration enforcement actions taking place near schools.

The Oregon Education Association announced Wednesday it will host three “anti-ICE” trainings in Bend, Eugene and Oregon City between Friday and Sunday with the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit League of United Latin American Citizens and the Woodburn-based Oregon for All Network.

The trainings are a response to a growing number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that have occurred at or around schools during student pickup and drop-off times, as well as operations that have swept up students, including citizens. On Nov. 21, a 17-year-old McMinnville student and U.S. citizen was arrested during his lunch period off of school grounds by ICE officers who smashed his car window to grab and detain him, sending shockwaves through the city. The student has since been released.

Educators and members of the public can register to join sessions here.

In January, President Donald Trump rescinded federal guidance that ICE and Customs and Border Protection avoid carrying out their work in “protected areas” such as schools, playgrounds, bus stops and foster and group home facilities.

In November, more than a dozen Oregon school districts dealt with ICE raids, arrests and other enforcement actions near campuses during pickup and drop-off times, according to a news release from the teachers’ union. Many of the ICE officers involved wore masks and didn’t wear official badges, they said.

In June, ICE officers arrested a Beaverton chiropractor and Iranian immigrant outside his child’s preschool, and agents have been reported outside schools in Portland, Hillsboro, Gresham, Wilsonville and Woodburn.

As a sanctuary state, it’s against Oregon law for public agencies, including school districts, to participate in immigration enforcement. School officials do not need to allow immigration agents to enter school property unless those agents have a warrant from a judge.

Each anti-ICE training is three to four hours long, and participants will learn how to prepare for, and respond to, ICE officers stationed near school campuses, what legal resources are available for students and families caught up in raids and arrests and what everyone’s rights are when interacting with law enforcement.

Enrique Farrera, the new president of the teachers’ union, said they’ll also help immigrant families make safety and contingency plans for scenarios where parents are deported but their kids remain in the U.S. And they’ll discuss how the Trump administration’s immigration policies and deportations are impacting student attendance and wellbeing.

Officials for the union, which represents more than 40,000 teachers in the state, expect roughly 600 teachers, school staff and community members will attend training over the weekend.

“We have received information from members who feel that they need more support on how to protect their students, because what we’re finding is that you might remove a student who has been deported or detained, their friends are starting to ask, ‘Well, where’s my friend?’” Farrera said. “It’s starting to impact the learning conditions for all the students.”

Farrera, who officially took on the role as union president in July, is a Mexican immigrant who earned U.S. citizenship in 2010 through a pathway implemented under former President George W. Bush for non-citizens who served in the military following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Farrera is a Marine veteran who spent most of his life in California and Oregon without permanent legal status before he was able to secure his citizenship. He is a graduate of Portland Community College and Portland State University.

“There’s a lot of people like me who have been fearful for most of their lives of speaking up because we become a target, or your professional career becomes ruined,” Farrera said. “We have lived under these circumstances for quite some time, but this has become more of a police state. This is becoming an era of an American democracy that’s under threat.”

Dates and locations of trainings:

Friday, Dec. 5: Clackamas Community College in Oregon City from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 6: University of Oregon in Eugene from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sunday, December 7: Central Oregon Community College in Bend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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