Former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on Tuesday, November 10, that it would be "horrible" and "a crime" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to enter Puerto Rico schools to remove migrant students with unresolved immigration status, as the Legislature debates a bill to regulate immigration interventions in schools. "Students should go to school. If they need to go to the hospital, (they should go) without fear that ICE is going to come in, and for me, it is horrible to see ICE in the school taking out children or parents or teachers," said Cardona, who was education secretary under President Joe Biden, after delivering the keynote at the annual meeting of Echar Pa’lante, a nonprofit that promotes alliances among educators.
He said teachers in Texas told him during a recent visit that many parents there have stopped sending children to school out of fear of ICE raids under President Donald Trump. Last week the Senate approved bill 1062, authored by Senator Nitza Morán, to turn into law the Education Department protocol protecting students from immigration interventions; amendments before approval, some senators say, stripped the ban on raids during school hours and the provision to move students to a safe place until an intervention’s legality is confirmed.
Under the measure, school staff must require a judicial order and Education Department notification and alert the parent or guardian "immediately." Cardona also said the IDEAR decentralization model, piloted in the Ponce region under Gov. Pedro Pierluisi and dropped by Gov. Jenniffer González, could be revived. He urged keeping partisan politics out of classrooms.