BURLINGAME – California Teachers Association President Eric C. Heins issued the following statement today regarding the ongoing detention of California State University Los Angeles student activist Claudia Rueda: 

“Educators are deeply troubled by the unjust detention of Claudia Rueda, who was seized by ICE agents in front of her Boyle Heights home on May 18. Claudia, who has lived in the United States most of her life, appears to have been targeted in retaliation for her activism on immigration rights and other issues, including the recent arrest of her own mother on drug charges that immigration officials later admitted were baseless. We urge ICE to approve the prosecutorial discretion package submitted by her attorneys as educators stand in solidarity with Claudia at her bond hearing in San Diego.

“The detention of students like Claudia Rueda is wrong, and is an example of the type of action by the new administration that is contributing to a climate of unease and fear in K-12 classrooms and on college/university campuses in California and across the nation. No student should have to live in fear of being uprooted from his or her home or of losing a family member to raids like the one that has ensnared Ms. Rueda. We denounce such crackdowns. Educators will continue to do all we can to ensure that our schools, colleges, and universities provide safe places for all students to learn and grow.”

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The 325,000-member California Teachers Association is affiliated with
the 3 million-member National Education Association.