The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico and other organizations demanded that Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives reverse amendments the Senate approved to Senate Bill 1062, saying they weaken protections for immigrant students facing federal immigration enforcement in public schools. ACLU Puerto Rico executive director Annette Martínez Orabona said the House must correct the amendments, restore the original guarantees and open public hearings.
The groups, part of the "Migrar es un Derecho" campaign with Kilómetro Cero, Amnesty International Puerto Rico and Comuna Caribe, released a legal analysis and asked the House to reject the bill if the original protections are not restored. According to the analysis, the amendments removed requirements for a judicial order: the original version required a competent court, a judge’s signature, and identification of the student and legal justification.
The Senate text instead says school staff must request a warrant and verify its scope and validity. The groups also object that an administrative order alone does not authorize access to non-public school spaces, which they say creates ambiguity. They said the requirement for legal counsel before releasing students’ personal information (Article 6) was eliminated, and provisions on notifying parents or guardians, accompanying students and consulting the Justice Department were weakened.
The amended version also drops an express ban on immigration actions in classrooms. Senator Nitza Morán Trinidad and other New Progressive Party legislators filed the bill on February 6, 2026; the Senate passed it without public hearings. The ACLU submitted its analysis Friday to the House Education Committee.