Major Teachers Union Backs Democrats’ Neo-Confederate Resistance to Immigration Enforcement

Democrats across the country are opposing President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law, arguably recreating the nullification crisis that helped spark the Civil War—and this neo-Confederate trend just received a major boost from an influential union.

The American Federation of Teachers, a union that bankrolls Democrat candidates and left-leaning causes, approved a resolution opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its annual convention in July, and that radical resolution encourages further opposition to immigration law, pitting state and local authorities against the federal government.

Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz has threatened to deploy his state’s National Guard troops against federal agents. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed federal immigration enforcement was an “occupying force.” Virginia Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed laws attempting to dictate how federal agents enforce the law in the Old Dominion.

Governors like JB Pritzker of Illinois, or Gavin Newsom of California, or Tina Kotek of Oregon, openly say that immigration law should not be enforced in their jurisdictions. Many states and cities have directed state and local law enforcement not to cooperate with ICE when it comes to removing illegal aliens.

These arguments echo the doctrine of nullification, the theory that states can refuse to cooperate with—or even actively obstruct—the enforcement of federal law. South Carolina advanced this theory in the Nullification Crisis of 1832, and it formed part of the bedrock for the South’s secession movements leading up to the Civil War. Today’s “sanctuary” movement differs in many respects, but it also aims to frustrate federal enforcement by mobilizing state and local power against national policy.

The AFT’s Institutional Support for Neo-Confederate Opposition

The union adopted a resolution on July 18 stating that it supports “efforts by governors, attorneys general, mayors, and other state and local leaders across the nation to protect residents from ICE.”

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The resolution also pledges to call on elected leaders to “use every tool in their toolbox” to: ban ICE from sensitive locations, ban ICE from conducting immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant, prevent local and state law enforcement coordination with ICE, and provide resources and training for “state employees” to “properly defend against and respond to unlawful actions from ICE agents.”

In a particularly brazen suggestion, the resolution calls on officials to “safeguard public school districts against enrollment declines… through state intervention and financial assistance.”

While the union suggests that ICE is breaking the law, immigration enforcement is a civil matter, not a criminal one, so ICE agents do not need to acquire judicial warrants to carry out raids—administrative warrants are sufficient.

The resolution aligns America’s second-largest teachers union with a campaign to obstruct federal immigration enforcement.

Why AFT Matters

Americans can disagree on immigration policy, but many of us wonder why a teachers union is devoting convention time to opposing federal immigration enforcement rather than addressing reading scores, absenteeism, classroom discipline, or teacher recruitment.

The American Federation of Teachers has long supported Democrats and leftist causes. Many prominent Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, addressed its annual convention in July.

The union’s political action arm has contributed to a wide swath of Democrat candidates in races across the country, according to public records analyzed by the parental rights group Defending Education. It contributed $500,000 to Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s 2025 gubernatorial campaign in Virginia, for example.

The American Federation of Teachers “functions as nothing more than a money-laundering operation for the Democrat Party,” Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow for education policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Signal. “Year after year, 99% of the contributions from Randi Weingarten’s union go to Democrats. She herself held an at-large position at the DNC for decades.”

“The AFT isn’t a labor organization focused on classrooms,” he added. “It’s an arm of the Democratic Party that uses teachers’ dues to advance partisan priorities, fund activist groups, and push policies that have nothing to do with improving education. This ICE resolution is just the latest example.”

Lora Ries, director of Heritage’s border security and immigration center, noted that “the Left has a long list of ‘sensitive areas’ where they claim ICE shouldn’t operate in or near, which would render ICE unable to do its job—and that is the point.”

The union gives Democrats support for the neo-Confederate opposition to Trump’s enforcement of immigration law. So long as influential leftist groups like the American Federation of Teachers encourage this divisive lawlessness, the tension will only get worse.