A Democratic state lawmaker is rebuking her own party’s softer legislative approach to concerns of immigration enforcement activity involving Oregon schools, championing more stringent protections her local school district’s teachers union recently secured during contract negotiations.
Oregon lawmakers this spring passedHouse Bill 4079, signed by Gov. Tina Kotek on March 31, to require school boards and the governing bodies of public colleges and universities to confirm and provide notice “as expediently as possible” to families, employees and students when federal immigration agents enter a school’s property. Federal policy has long blocked immigration enforcement at “sensitive areas” including schools, churches and hospitals, but the Trump administration rescinded that policy last year.
Rep. Lesly Muñoz, a Woodburn Democrat who serves as a negotiator for the Woodburn Education Association, joined all but one other Democrat in voting for that law. But she criticized the law after the Woodburn Education Association secured its own agreement in late April, saying it did nothing to push back on ICE agents entering campuses and that it stayed “painfully silent on the consequences of detention and deportation that may arise after ICE breaches campus, with no mention about employment consequences teachers face after a raid or incident.”
“This is why Woodburn teachers spent six months championing their own proposal, which was made with robust and inclusive input from one of the most diverse communities in Oregon,” Muñoz told the Capital Chronicle. “It’s unfortunate more communities of color like Woodburn weren’t consulted on how the state law for ICE notification in schools could be much stronger, but it underscores the importance of the role of unions in being the leaders securing these groundbreaking protections.”
Whether any of the agreed-upon protections will withstand federal law enforcement’s authority is an open question, but the disagreement exposes a deeper rift between some Democratic lawmakers in Oregon. The contract marks a new front in the battleover how bestto respond to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, including over whether state leaders should test the boundaries of state law or work within established legal authority.
The law takes effect by Sept. 30, and it came amid concern that instances of immigration enforcement or rumours could chill attendance and negatively impact student performance. Oregon already has among the worst student absenteeism rates in the country, and teachers have anecdotally reported that more students have been missing class because of concerns about immigration enforcement since President Donald Trump returned to office last year.
An earlier version of the new state law would have required that schools designate someone to verify if federal immigration agents possess a judicial warrant, but lawmakers stripped that provision because they were seeking to keep tensions low at school sites.
Along with providing training for an administrator who would notify students and parents about immigration enforcement, the law requires schools and universities to share their disclosure policies in their student handbooks and on their website in languages tailored to their communities’ needs.
Thenew Woodburn agreement, meanwhile, mandates that “Know Your Rights” information be given to staff, students and families and requires a judicial warrant for federal immigration agents to enter campus. It also ensures educators receive notice of immigration enforcement activity and protects employees with active work authorization statuses from facing retribution based on their work status. Perhaps its most unique feature is a measure that allows educators to use personal leave or apply for unpaid leave for “immigration-related issues” or 90 days specifically for absence due to detention or deportation.
The proposal marked a significant victory for the teachers union, which has been negotiating its contract for more than a year. The union noted that the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which have often ensnared U.S. citizens and Oregonians with no criminal record, have struck fear in its student body, more than 80% of which is Latino. Union leaders said they have heard from other local teachers unions about interest in adopting their anti-ICE language.
“Recent ICE actions targeting the most vulnerable populations in this community have created a pervasive sense of fear, not only among our students, but among many of our colleagues as well,” Tony Salm, president of the Woodburn Education Association and a fifth grade dual-language Spanish teacher at Heritage Elementary School, said in a statement. “Because it is incumbent on us as educators to do whatever we can to create a learning environment where our students feel safe and protected, adding some of those protections into our contract is the least we can do.”
Author of law responds
Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, a Democrat from Corvallis and a chief sponsor of the legislation, welcomed the move from Woodburn teachers and said she supports districts going beyond the legislation.
But McDonald told the Capital Chronicle lawmakers had to confront practicalities in the legislative process. For one, she said lawmakers didn’t want to exacerbate fiscal concerns for school districts when money is tight. Additionally, she said that school administrators aren’t lawyers and that lawmakers wanted to keep their interactions with federal authorities “as sort of low-conflict as possible.”
“There are school districts who are very nervous about doing any of this,” she said. “We’ve asked them to at least do the minimum of what we feel will give our families assurance.”
The Woodburn district and its teachers, meanwhile, are still hashing out the rest of their contract agreement. In a statement, the Woodburn School District reiterated its existing policy requiring judicial orders for entry and said the new agreement “incorporates many already in place protections and protocols that comply with the law and demonstrate a shared value to prioritize the wellbeing for vulnerable populations in order to maintain a focus on teaching and learning.”
“The diversity within our community is one of our greatest strengths, and we are dedicated to creating an environment where each member of our school community, no matter their background, feels a deep sense of belonging and is encouraged to thrive,” the district said in an unsigned statement. “We fully support and uphold Oregon’s ‘Sanctuary Laws,’ under which no public resources, including school employees, may be used to assist with federal immigration enforcement actions.”
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