Puerto Rico Sen. Ángel Toledo defended Senate Bill 1062, authored by Nitza Morán, and rejected accusations by Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago that the measure could leave minors unprotected during interventions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in schools. Toledo said the bill sets out a protocol requiring notification to the secretary of Education and to parents, and guarantees that a student is accompanied by a father, mother or guardian during any procedure.
"The bill says it in bold on white paper. That is why I insist that my colleague María de Lourdes Santiago is lying (...) in articles two and three it says: 'any personnel inside the school who has the situation of attending to an agent has to call the secretary of Education, who in turn will seek to call the secretary of Justice, and it says textually that parents must be called and the minor accompanied for any procedure,'" he stressed.
Santiago had raised the possibility that the measure leaves minors unprotected before ICE actions in schools.