Why ESL Teachers with MAT and MEd Degrees are Better Equipped to Deal with New Deportation Efforts

President Trump takes office in the United States, riding a wave of fiery anti-immigrant rhetoric. Making promises to use the immense powers of the office, the goal is to keep undocumented immigrants out and send those who are already here back to where they came from. A slew of executive orders come from the Oval Office, blocking programs for refugees fleeing from dire situations, deploying the military for border patrol duties, and stopping migrants at the Mexican border before hearing their asylum claims.

If this sounds like it was ripped from the headlines, you’re right… but maybe not the headlines you are thinking about. Instead, these were all things that happened in the early days of the first Trump administration.

Just like back then, a big part of the Trump campaign this time around involved playing to anti-immigrant sentiment. So naturally, ESL teachers now are just as concerned as they were back then.

So what is in store for ESL educators and their students this time around, and what can they do about it?

Weighing the Impacts From Trump Version One Can Help ESL Teachers Prepare for Trump Version Two

One thing that you can say with one term of Trump under your belt already is that his administration is as much about vibes as policy.

It’s also been true that the impact of the vibe has landed a lot harder than actual enforcement mechanisms. Many people aren’t aware that as many deportations occurred during the Biden administration as during Trump’s first term; both presidents actually sent fewer immigrants home than Barack Obama did during his first term.

Instead, attention-grabbing stunts like the new Acting DHS Secretary, Benjamine Huffman, withdrawing longstanding protections against enforcement actions on school grounds by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection), have provoked strong reactions from the education and ESL teaching communities.

But there was no great clamor from ICE to raid schools in the first place.

Much has already been written about the logistical impossibility of rounding up and deporting as many immigrants as Trump has consistently promised in anywhere close to the timespan he promised to do it in. An analysis by the American Immigration Council put some numbers on it:

• A mass deportation effort aimed at some 13 million undocumented immigrants at a rate of 1 million per year would cost nearly a trillion dollars
• It would require building 24 times the current detention capacity available to ICE, a prison system that would dwarf the current American prison population of 1.2 million
• Another 1,000 immigration administrative hearing courtrooms would have to be created and staffed
• More than ten thousand new ICE agents would need to be hired

Needless to say, there’s little to suggest that the administration is capable of accomplishing this, at least in the short-term.

ESL Teachers Cling to the Hope that the Reach of Deportation Efforts Doesn’t Match the Rhetoric

Every ESL teacher has seen it: the students who make up for poor comprehension by simply repeating themselves, but at a higher volume. Trump may suffer from the same malady.

You can see it by taking a look at the actual impacts of policies from the first Trump administration, versus the promises:

• Decrease overall numbers of new immigrants to 30,000 per year… This happened, but quite possibly from COVID restrictions rather than policy action
• Triple the number of enforcement and deportation actions… Fewer ICE agents were employed by the end of his first term than when he started
• Increasing pressure for local enforcement of immigration laws by defunding sanctuary cities… These cases were uniformly tossed out by courts
• Removing birthright citizenship… Didn’t happen.
• Build the Wall and have Mexico pay for it… A few sections of fence went up; American taxpayers footed the entire bill

So clearly there is a lot of bark in Trump immigration rhetoric, but a lot less bite.

Still, as ESL teachers know, all that barking is bad for students, too.

What if This Time Is Different?

None of this is to say that, with the benefits of experience and four years on the bench making plans, that some of these policies may not actually stick this time around. A much friendlier Supreme Court, one built at this stage largely by Trump himself, may mean that some crucial court decisions that prevented this stuff from working before may swing the other way this time—that’s been the case with a number of other Trumpian policies.

Only two weeks into his term, it’s the case that many actions taken by the Trump administration have no legal basis… but courts have been unable to enforce orders against them.

There’s certainly a difference already in a fresh emphasis on attacking DEI efforts. Several Department of Education employees were placed on leave for attending a diversity training before Trump even took office. Of course, this is bad news for ESL teachers, for whom pretty much all training is a sort of diversity training.

One thing is certain regardless of what happens with American immigration policy: ESL teachers will be affected.

ESL Teachers See the Fallout in Immigrant Communities Every Day

Many are still dealing with the impacts of the failed family separation policy from the first Trump administration.

The Zero Tolerance policy saw some 4,300 children separated from parents or guardians at the border and placed first in cages, and later with foster families by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Many of those children, some as young as 4-months old at the time, continue to experience PTSD and anxiety from the experience. More than a thousand have yet to be reunited with their families. Many were dumped into American schools with no English skills whatsoever, putting teachers in a position of not only having to teach them English, but also cope with intensive mental health issues.

This isn’t a combination that a basic TESOL course covers, but is something that anyone with a Master’s in Education or a Master of Arts in Teaching with a TESOL endorsement is much better equipped to handle.

Why Higher Levels of Education May Offer Your Best Chance of Making a Difference in the Lives of English Language Learners

That’s because a MAT or MEd have plenty of additional coursework covering subjects like:

• Language and culture
• Learning theory
• Assessment methods
• Youth and adolescent development
• Child psychology

This is a broader set of expertise that ESL teachers can deploy to better understand and connect even with students facing significant psychological trauma.

Graduate studies also give students a leg up in dissecting the thorny problems of politics as it comes crashing into their world. Skills in research, critical thinking, and understanding culture and society will all come into play. You may even be better equipped to help students’ families decipher court orders. This kind of thing could very likely become part of the new unofficial job description for ESL teachers.

Perhaps more importantly, those degrees will better prepare you to help students in more direct ways…

More Advanced Teaching Methods Can Help Immigrants Better Master American Dialect

Of course, the most significant concern about Trump version 2 is not Trump himself, but what his election might say about a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. Polling suggests a negative shift in attitudes around openness to immigration and discomfort with people speaking languages other than English in public.

When a class of citizens such as immigrants are under threat and suspicion, one of the classic resolutions is assimilation.

Here, again, more advanced education in ELL instruction is helpful. It can prepare ESL teachers to be more skilled at giving attention to native-level pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, and vocabulary.

There is no question that the more education you have, the better equipped you’ll be to adapt to the needs of students in the years ahead.

No one is quite sure what the future holds under the drastic new enforcement orders, now in full swing under the current administration. But more education is always the right path forward, and even more so in uncertain times.