A group of teachers from the Philippines and a teacher who is a U.S. citizen were rousted from their beds early Tuesday morning along with their families at their Kahului residence by armed Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents serving a search warrant.

According to one of the teachers, they and their families were detained for more than 40 minutes, only to find out the man that authorities were looking for wasn’t there.

The teacher who was born a U.S. citizen declined to provide her name saying she fears retaliation. She said she repeatedly asked the federal agents if she could show them documents proving she was a U.S. citizen but was ignored throughout the experience that the teacher described as traumatic for her, her coworkers and their young families.

Some of the people rousted from beds were still wrapped in blankets because they had no time to dress, the teacher said.

“The whole situation was really overwhelming and traumatic for all of us, but I felt the need to speak out because I felt it could have been handled better, and I really do not want to see that happen again with teachers who are here to help our children, who are here legally as well,” the teacher said.

Osa Tui Jr., president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, described the early morning raid on the group of teachers in multi-family dwellings broken up into apartments as “quite distressing.”

“In this case, with educators rousted from their beds at gunpoint, there was no public apology for the harm that was done,” Tui said.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz characterized the incident as “racial profiling and a shameful abuse of power.”

“The reported interrogation and efforts to detain Filipino teachers in their home on Maui by ICE agents is outrageous,” Schatz said. “We are a nation of laws, but the broad ICE raids this week are clearly designed just to instill fear. Our teachers, our visitors and our neighbors deserve dignity and safety, not fear of seemingly arbitrary harassment.”

Tui said that “across the country and now here in these communities, our government is not doing their homework and doing sloppy work which jeopardizes lives and the well-being of those who live here.”

“We’re concerned that, if this was a mistake, what other mistakes are being made or will be made affecting other innocent people,” he said.

He said the teachers from the Philippines were on a five-year exchange with the state Department of Education to help with Hawaii’s teacher shortage. Tui also said he worries the incident could discourage other Philippine teachers from participating in the exchange program.

Retired Maui school vice principal Norma Barroga said she’s provided orientation for the teachers in the last couple of years and that many of the Philippine teachers are highly skilled and have master’s degrees.

The U.S. teacher said she asked the agents if the teachers could show some identification and proof that they were legally here.

“They wouldn’t allow me to do so, and said that they needed to get everyone’s names down to double check to see if the person they were looking for was here,” she said.

“As time went on, they began to write names on a pad, and they were radioing the names to an agent in an unmarked van that I guess was identifying them on the opposite side of the street,” she continued.

She said that at that moment, she began to notice some of the people around her were shaking, and one of the teacher’s young daughters was crying.

“I was really concerned, so I asked again, gently, if we could show them documentation to prove our identity, and once again, I was told no,” she said.

The teacher said a considerable time had passed when one of the teachers asked the agents if the teachers could notify their principal because it was getting close to the beginning of the school day and they would need to get substitutes if they missed class.

She said the agents finally let her go, and when she was brought back upstairs, she showed one of the agents her passport. She said he was taken aback and apologized to her several times.

She said she noticed it was 7 a.m. and the agents had held them for about 45 minutes.

“I rushed myself to get to school as well, and thankfully, I made it on time,” she said.

The teacher said that when she returned home later, she asked the landlord if the federal agents had provided a search warrant because they never showed it to her, and the landlord mentioned that they did, but only after they searched the house.

According to the teacher, the agents were looking for a Hispanic man that had lived there over a year ago.