As educators, we are appalled at the unjust interrogation and detention of Winooski Superintendent Wilmer Chavarria – a U.S. citizen – as he and his husband attempted to return to the United States from a recent trip abroad.
The assault on immigrants and migrants at the hands of border and immigration officials is appalling and represents the worst impulses of the current federal administration. Superintendent Chavarria – who was born in a Honduran refugee camp, grew up in Nicaragua and eventually earned a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees – has been a citizen since 2018.
We stand in support and solidarity with Superintendent Chavarria and his husband and condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of U.S. border officials. We join the Winooski School Board in their call for a thorough investigation of this matter, and call on our federal delegation to Congress to register their condemnation of this absurd treatment of a U.S. citizen.
We also want to remind all Vermonters – and all Americans – that immigrants and migrants are at the very foundation of our nation. We welcome every student who walks into our public schools, and we will continue to support and nurture all students – this country’s future.
Now, more than ever, as masked government agents snatch migrants from schools, hospitals, courtrooms, and places of employment and border officials unjustly detain citizens, we must reaffirm our support of all people who call America home.
