NEW YORK, N.Y.—The U.S.’s two largest teachers unions joined several civil-rights groups June 20 in
filing a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council against the Trump administration’s policy of taking away the children of families caught illegally crossing the border. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, along with the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, charged that the policy, which has put nearly 2,000 children in detention centers away from their parents, violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. “It is intolerable and unlawful to separate families who have sacrificed everything to escape the toxic circumstances of their home countries,” the complaint says. “These kids should actually be in schools and with their parents and with their families, not separated from them,” AFT President Randi Weingarten told the Huffington Post. “We believe in helping children thrive, not in confining them to heinous, abusive situations.” The petition was filed the day after U.S. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that the U.S. was going to leave the Human Rights Council. Read more
