Foreign-Born D.C. Teachers Blindsided by End of Green Card Policy

The Washington Post

17:54 JST, April 8, 2025

She first came to the United States from Colombia in her early 20s, working as an au pair and learning how badly American schools needed Spanish teachers.

So the woman returned home, got a bachelor’s degree, then moved back to the United States and earned a master’s in education, curriculum and instruction. She taught in Virginia initially, before landing a job with D.C. Public Schools in 2021. According to the woman, who now teaches at a Northwest Washington elementary school, DCPS said it would sponsor green cards for a handful of teachers who stayed for three years and performed well.

She said the documentation was never promised to her – but she was told it was a possibility.

“I was like, ‘Perfect,’” said the woman, who, like other international teachers interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by her employer. “I would be working as hard as I can to earn that privilege.”

In late August, after three years on the job, she started asking officials about a green card, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post. On Halloween, she heard back: The policy, started in 2021, was on hold, and the school system would not be sponsoring anyone, a lawyer for DCPS informed her.

She panicked. “What’s going on?” she recalled thinking. The next several months would bring even more uncertainty and confusion.

Since as early as December 2023, D.C. schools officials had been reviewing whether to continue sponsoring green card applicants, according to emails between international teachers and DCPS attorneys reviewed by The Post. But not until two months ago did educators begin to understand that the program had ended, they said in interviews.

The reversal has left them in a lurch. Many have bought houses and had children in the District, but now they have limited options for staying at their schools or in the country.

A green card allows an immigrant to live permanently in the United States and eventually become a citizen. Almost 1.2 million people received green cards in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the Department of Homeland Security.

Educators worry that the suspension of the DCPS policy – along with the Trump administration’s crackdown on both undocumented and legal immigrants – could discourage other international teachers from wanting to work for the school district, even amid high demand for bilingual education and a growing population of students learning English.

“They don’t want to waste their time waiting for answers,” another international educator, who teaches world languages at an elementary school, said about her colleagues. “They’re not going to play with their future.”

D.C. schools officials, however, said the policy was never permanent. Flush with millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds, the school district in 2021 launched a pilot program to sponsor green card applicants, said Kera Tyler, a DCPS spokesperson. As the federal money ran out, the “program wasn’t sustainable,” Tyler said, and officials moved to end the effort.

In interviews with The Post, teachers said they did not know the program was temporary. Emails show that months after the pilot ended, lawyers for the school system told teachers the program was on hold – not over. Tyler noted that under the policy, green card sponsorship was contingent on financial and legal resources, and that officials had been looking for money to continue the program.

Applying for a green card typically requires a sponsor, which is most often an applicant’s relative, federal data shows. But in about 17 percent of cases, an immigrant got permanent residency through their job.

In May 2021, DCPS decided that it would offer a similar track and started a pilot to sponsor up to 15 green card applicants each year, Tyler said.

School districts throughout the country rely heavily on teachers from abroad to fill gaps, especially amid a national staffing shortage, and it’s common for them to sponsor teachers’ work visas. But that doesn’t usually lead to a green card, said Nick Spagnolo, president of Teachers Council, a nonprofit that provides visa services to educators. The group works with more than 100 school systems across 30 states and assists with about 10 green card applications each year, he said.

In neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland, the public school district does not sponsor green cards, a spokesperson said. Neither does Fairfax County, Virginia, although officials said they are exploring options for the future.

A district “may have many H-1B teachers,” Spagnolo said, referring to a popular work visa for educators, “but then they don’t have the budget to sponsor dozens of teachers for the green card.” Between 210 and 250 DCPS teachers hold that visa, Tyler said.

While many of those educators consider whether they can stay in the country, there is a huge demand for bilingual education in the District. The number of children learning English in D.C.’s public schools has surged over the past decade, from about 4,800 to more than 8,300 students this year, data shows.

And dual language programs, offered at fewer than 10 percent of the city’s traditional public schools, continue to be highly sought-after, often having lengthy wait-lists in the annual lottery.

But even at schools without dual language offerings, bilingual teachers said they make significant contributions. Often the only non-English speaking staff, they translate documents for parents and run after-school programs. The elementary school world languages teacher said she offers tutoring to Spanish-speaking students who are behind in math.

Another D.C. Spanish teacher said she moved to the U.S. in 2016 to complete a language doctoral program. When it came time to find a job, she said, she declined offers from three universities to teach at a high school in D.C. because it appeared to offer more security. She started in 2021.

Like the elementary school teachers, she knew a green card wasn’t guaranteed. Not only would she have to consistently earn high scores on her evaluations, she’d have to compete with other teachers who wanted permanent residency as badly as she did.

When she was ready to start the green card process, she emailed a school district lawyer in March 2023 – less than two years after she started working there – for details. It could take some time, the lawyer replied, “which is why we start the process at the end of your third year/beginning of your 4th year.”

But as that time got closer, this teacher struggled to get clear answers. Finally, in October, she heard from another teacher that the policy had been suspended. “I had a hard time believing it,” she said. She’s now looking to leave the district, and she suspects she will be replaced by another teacher on a temporary work visa.

The teachers are getting increasingly desperate, they said, and have spent the past several days meeting with D.C. Council members, mobilizing their school parent-teacher organizations and begging school district leaders for help. None of it has worked.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has ramped up its immigration agenda, recently targeting foreigners living in the U.S. legally. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that the State Department has already revoked about 300 visas from foreign nationals, including students.

A high school Spanish teacher said he has created a special folder in his phone with his immigration documents, ready for quick access.

“You hear horror stories about American citizens being stopped and raided by ICE so, yeah, it definitely makes me anxious,” he said.

Last week, federal agents attempted to detain a health-care worker at H.D. Cooke Elementary School, DCPS officials said. (A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agents’ presence was not related to “any kind of enforcement action,” but did not respond to questions about why the officers were there.)

Educators’ options are dwindling, the Spanish teacher said. In an email reviewed by The Post, an attorney for the school district offered suggestions – including leaving the country for a year, coming back and restarting his visa.

Or he could sponsor his own green card, the cost of which can run upward of $10,000 in government, legal and processing fees, he said.

“If you’re somebody like me who’s paying a mortgage, who’s paying for two day cares, it’s really hard to afford something like that,” the teacher said. He’s considering returning to Colombia or moving his family of four to another country where an employer will sponsor a pathway to permanent residency.

Self-sponsoring can be difficult and is limited to people with highly specialized skills. “That would be really challenging for a schoolteacher,” said Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “I’d be wary.”

The Spanish teacher has also considered leaving D.C. and teaching elsewhere. But with about 2½ years left on his work visa, he’s worried that it’s too late. Many organizations require employees to work for a year or two before they’ll even consider sponsoring them for a green card.

“I was building a future here and now the rules have changed,” he said. “If the district is not willing to sponsor us, this is basically it for us.”