1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

End Child Detentions and Pursue Compensatory Education Services I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to stop the detention of children whose parents are targeted in immigration enforcement operations and to pursue compensation for the educational services these children are losing. Recent ICE raids have resulted in children missing school and losing access to their Individualized Education Program services. These are legally mandated educational supports that students with disabilities depend on for their academic progress. When children are kept home due to fear of immigration enforcement or because their parents have been detained, they lose not just instructional time but specialized services that cannot be easily made up. The incident in Minneapolis this January involving Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa-Celis illustrates the climate of fear these operations create in communities. When DHS allegedly misrepresents such incidents, it further erodes trust and keeps families in hiding, with children bearing the educational consequences. I urge you to advocate for an immediate halt to immigration enforcement operations that target families with school-age children. Additionally, our state should pursue legal action to recover compensatory services costs. When children miss IEP services due to federal enforcement actions, school districts must provide compensatory education to make up for lost services. This creates significant financial burdens on local school systems that should be borne by the federal agencies whose actions caused the disruption. States have standing to sue for these costs, and involving truancy systems could document the scope of educational harm being caused. School districts are already stretched thin financially and should not absorb the costs of federal immigration policy. I ask that you work with the Attorney General's office to explore legal remedies for recovering compensatory education costs and that you publicly oppose immigration enforcement operations that keep children out of school and away from their legally mandated educational services.