ALBANY, N.Y. Jan. 30, 2017 — New York State United Teachers today released the following statement in reaction to President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States:
“As educators, our classrooms are sanctuaries and our students are family. Every day, across this state we teach and model lessons in tolerance, inclusion, respect and understanding to our students, who hail from more than 140 nations and practice many different faiths. New York State United Teachers completely rejects as antithetical to American ideals this executive order, which unconstitutionally singles out refugees based on their religion. We urge our members to continue to fight this and every other form of discrimination. This is not who we are as Americans.”
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.