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Year: 2025

Winter storms cause war-damaged buildings to collapse in Gaza

Winter storms cause war-damaged buildings to collapse in Gaza

NewsFeed Heavy rain and strong winds are causing buildings weakened by Israeli bombardment to collapse across Gaza. At least 17 buildings have fallen since the beginning of December, as hundreds of thousands Palestinians shelter in unsafe buildings or makeshift tents. Published On 17 Dec 202517 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)

Faced with Trump’s deportation push, US teachers fear leaving the classroom

Faced with Trump’s deportation push, US teachers fear leaving the classroom

Washington, DC – For the past two years, weekdays for Susanna have meant thumbing through picture books, organising cubby holes and leading classroom choruses of songs. But her work as a pre-school teacher came to a screeching halt in October, when she found out her application to renew her work permit had been denied. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Susanna, who uses a pseudonym in this article for fear of reprisals, is one of the nearly 10 percent of teachers in the United States who are immigrants. But while the US has increasingly looked abroad to fill teacher shortages, some foreign-born teachers say the deportation push under President Donald Trump has threatened their livelihoods — and risks traumatising their students. Susanna, an asylum applicant who fled violence in Guatemala nearly a decade ago, said that losing her permit meant she had to stop working immediately. She recalls breaking the news to her students, some of whom are only three years old. Many were too young to understand. “In one week, I lost everything,” Susanna told Al Jazeera in Spanish. “When I told the kids goodbye, they asked me why, and I told them, ‘I can only tell you goodbye.’ There were kids that hugged me, and it hurt my heart a lot.” Advocates warn that the sudden departure of teachers could harm the development of young children in school [Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan/Al Jazeera] Looking abroad for teachers Estimates vary as to how many foreign-born teachers currently work in the US. But one 2019 report from George Mason University found that there were 857,200 immigrants among the country’s 8.1 million teachers, in roles ranging from pre-school to university. Advertisement For the 2023-2024 school year alone, the US government brought 6,716 full-time teachers to the country on temporary exchange visas to fill openings in pre-kindergarten, primary and secondary school education. Many hailed from the Philippines, as well as countries like Jamaica, Spain and Colombia. The uncertainty for immigrants under Trump’s second term, however, has proven disruptive to schools that rely heavily on foreign-born teachers. That is the case for the pre-school where Susanna worked, CommuniKids, which offers language immersion programmes in Washington, DC. Cofounder and president Raul Echevarría estimates that immigrants — both citizens and non-citizens working with legal authorisation — comprise about 90 percent of CommuniKids’s staff. But Echevarría told Al Jazeera that the push to rescind legal pathways to immigration has jeopardised the employment of several faculty members. Five other teachers at the school have seen their ability to work affected by changes to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme. All five, Echevarría explained, were originally from Venezuela. But in October, the Trump administration ended TPS status for more than 350,000 Venezuelan citizens, including the teachers at CommuniKids. Their authorisation to work legally in the US will expire on October 2, 2026, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website. “These teachers lost their ability to make a living,” Echevarria said, noting that his school requires educators with expertise in languages like Spanish, French and Mandarin. CommuniKids, a language immersion school in Washington, DC, helps young children develop skills in French, Mandarin and Spanish [Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan/Al Jazeera] ‘Strong bonds’ For the schools themselves, the losses can be devastating. Every state in the US has reported teacher shortages to the federal government. But advocates say the high stress and low pay of education make teachers difficult to recruit and keep. That leads some states to look abroad for education workers. In North Carolina, for example, 1,063 foreign nationals worked full-time as grade-school teachers on temporary J-1 visas during the 2023-2024 school year. The top destinations for such recruits were all southern states: North Carolina was followed by Florida with 996 teachers on J-1 visas, and Texas with 761. But Echevarria said some of the biggest impacts of the deportation drive are felt by the students themselves. “Our students develop strong bonds with their teachers, and all of a sudden, overnight, they lost their teachers,” said Echevarría. Advertisement “Their number one superpower”, he added, “is their ability to empathise and to create strong, effective bonds with people from any background”. But when those bonds are broken, there can be mental health consequences and setbacks for educational achievement, particularly among younger children. A 2024 study published by the American Educational Research Association found that, when teachers leave midyear, children’s language development takes a measurable hit. In other words, the loss of a familiar teacher — someone who knows their routines, strengths and fears — can quietly stall a child’s progress. The consequences extend to a child’s sense of self and stability. Mental health consequences For parents like Michelle Howell, whose child attends CommuniKids, the loss of teachers has also made the classroom environment feel fragile. “The teachers there aren’t just teachers for these young kids,” Howell said of CommuniKids. “They’re like extended family. “They hug them, they hold them, they do the things a parent would do. When those people disappear, it’s not just hard for the kids. It’s hard for everyone.” Howell, who is Chinese American, said the sudden disappearances reminded her of her own family’s history. “I used to read about things like this happening in China, the place my family left to find safety,” she said. “It’s very disturbing to know that what we ran from back then is our reality now. People disappear.” School psychologist Maria C, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her work in the Texas public school system, has noticed the children she works with struggling with instability caused by the deportation push. The disappearance of a loved one or mentor — say, a favourite teacher — could flood a child’s body with cortisol, the hormone meant to protect them in moments of danger, she explained. But when that stress becomes chronic, the same hormone starts to hurt more than it helps. It interferes with memory, attention and emotional regulation. “For some, it looks like anxiety. For others,