WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the past two years, weekdays for Susannah have meant poring through picture books, organizing her cubicle, and leading her classroom chorus.
But her job as a kindergarten teacher came to a screeching halt when she learned in October that her work permit renewal application had been rejected.
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Susannah, whose pseudonym is used in this article for fear of retribution, is one of about 10 percent of teachers in the United States who are immigrants.
But as the United States increasingly looks overseas to fill teacher shortages, some foreign-born teachers say the deportation push under President Donald Trump threatens their livelihoods and risks traumatizing their students.
Susannah, an asylum seeker who fled violence in Guatemala nearly 10 years ago, said she had to immediately stop working after losing her permit.
She recalls breaking the news to her students. Some of the students are only 3 years old. Many were too young to understand.
“In one week I lost everything,” Susanna told Al Jazeera in Spanish. “When I said goodbye to my children, they asked me why, and I said, ‘All I can do is say goodbye.’ Some of them hugged me, and it really hurt my heart.”
Looking for a teacher overseas
Estimates vary regarding the number of foreign-born teachers currently working in the United States. However, a 2019 report from George Mason University found that of the nation’s 8.1 million teachers, there were 857,200 immigrants in roles ranging from kindergarten to college.
For the 2023-2024 school year alone, the U.S. government brought 6,716 full-time teachers into the country on temporary exchange visas to fill vacancies in preschool, elementary, and secondary education.
Many were from countries such as Jamaica, Spain, and Colombia, as well as the Philippines.
But uncertainty over immigration under President Trump’s second term is proving to be devastating for schools that rely heavily on foreign-born teachers.
Such is the case with CommuniKids, a preschool that offers language immersion programs in Washington, D.C., where Susannah worked.
Co-founder and president Raul Echevarria estimates that immigrants (both citizens and non-citizens working with legal permission) make up about 90% of CommuniKids’ staff.
However, Echevarria told Al Jazeera that several teachers’ jobs are at risk due to the push to cancel legal pathways to immigration.
Five other teachers at the school feel that changes to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program have affected their ability to do their jobs.
Echevarria said all five were originally from Venezuela. But in October, the Trump administration ended TPS eligibility for more than 350,000 Venezuelans, including Community Kids teachers.
Their authorization to legally work in the United States expires on October 2, 2026, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
“These teachers have lost the ability to make a living,” Echevarria said, noting that his school needs educators with expertise in Spanish, French, Mandarin and other languages.
“Strong bond”
For the school itself, the loss can be devastating. States in the United States report teacher shortages to the federal government.
But advocates say high stress and low wages in the classroom make it difficult to recruit and retain teachers.
This has led some states to look overseas for education workers. For example, in North Carolina, 1,063 foreign nationals worked full-time as elementary school teachers on temporary J-1 visas during the 2023-2024 school year.
The top destinations for such hiring were all Southern states, followed by North Carolina with 996 teachers on J-1 visas, followed by Florida and Texas with 761.
But Echevarria said some of the biggest effects of deportation are being felt by students themselves.
“Our students have strong bonds with their teachers, and we suddenly lost them overnight,” Echevarria said.
“Their number one superpower is their ability to empathize and form strong and effective bonds with people of all backgrounds,” he added.
But when that bond is broken, there can be mental health effects and decreased academic performance, especially among younger children.
A 2024 study published by the American Educational Research Association found that when teachers leave mid-year, children’s language development is significantly affected.
In other words, losing a familiar teacher—one who knows a teacher’s routines, strengths, and fears—can quietly stagnate a child’s development. Its influence extends to the child’s sense of self and stability.
Impact on mental health
Even for parents like Michelle Howell, whose children attend CommuniKids, the loss of teachers has made the classroom environment feel more vulnerable.
“The teachers here are not just teachers for these young kids,” Howell said of Community Kids. “They are like a big family.
“They hug the kids, hug them, do the things that parents do. When those people are gone, it’s not just hard on the kids, it’s hard on everyone.”
Howell, who is Chinese-American, said the sudden disappearance reminded her of her family’s history.
“I often read about things like this happening in China, where families left in search of safety,” she said. “It’s very disturbing to know that what we were running away from back then is now our reality. People are disappearing.”
Maria C., a school psychologist who requested anonymity to protect her job in the Texas public school system, noticed that the children she worked with were suffering from instability due to deportation.
She explained that the disappearance of a loved one or mentor, such as a favorite teacher, can flood a child’s body with cortisol, a hormone meant to protect children in moments of danger.
But when that stress becomes chronic, those same hormones begin to do more harm than good. It interferes with memory, attention, and emotional regulation.
“For some, it looks like anxiety. For others, it’s depression or sudden outbursts,” Maria said. “They’re in fight-or-flight mode all day long.”
She added that selective mutism, an anxiety disorder, is on the rise among children across a wide range of ages, from five to 12 years old.
“Before, it was rare, maybe one case per school,” she says. “Now I see it all the time. It’s a silent symptom of fear.”
prepare for the worst
Back at CommuniKids, Echevarria explained that she and other staff members are putting together a contingency plan in case immigration enforcement officers arrive at the preschool.
The goal, he said, is to make both employees and students feel more comfortable attending classes.
“We documented these steps because we wanted our staff to know they are not alone,” he said. “We have attorneys on staff. We partner with local law enforcement. But above all, our job is to protect children.”
However, as an additional precaution, teachers are advised to carry their passport or work permit.
Even Echevarria, a Virginia-born U.S. citizen, said she carries her passport with her everywhere she goes. The fear of deportation remains.
“I’m bilingual and Hispanic,” he said. “Given the circumstances, I want to be able to prove that I am a citizen if anyone has any questions.”
