Democrat senators are calling on the U.S. Department of Education to pressure immigration authorities to keep enforcement actions from being carried out within 1,000 feet of any school property after recent incidents in the Chicago area.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and about a half dozen other senators have sent a letter, provided to NBC News, to Education Secretary Linda McMahon to ask her to step in and ask that the Department of Homeland Security reinstate restrictions on enforcement actions, the network reported Friday.
"Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and well-being of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote in the letter.
The letter, signed by Democrat Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland; Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, Nevada; Kirsten Gillibrand, New York; Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey; and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, asks for "common sense" immigration policing around schools.
"If society can agree that alcohol, tobacco, and drugs should be kept at least 1,000 feet away from our schools, surely we can agree that tear gas, a chemical weapon which causes burning, pain, skin inflammation, and respiratory distress, and other violent DHS tools and tactics also belong on that list," the letter said.
The senators also ask that federal agents in the Chicago area specifically be blocked from carrying out "Operation Midway Blitz" within 1,000 feet of public and private schools.
Newsmax has reached out to the Department of Education for comment.
In their letter, the senators detailed two incidents in Chicago, including one on Oct. 3 that took place "700 feet from Funston Elementary School during the lunch hour, forcing the school to shift recess and activities inside for the rest of the day to protect students from the gratuitous use of chemical agents near an elementary school."
The second incident, described as being on Oct. 8, involved federal agents who had "forcefully dragged two women out of a car in front of a school on the West Side of Chicago, violently detaining them without presenting a warrant, as children and parents watched on in horror."
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, when asked by NBC News about the possibility of keeping immigration actions away from schools, commented that the tear gas incident took place "because of violent rioters."
"This is not that hard," she added.
But witnesses to the tear gas incident said that the crowd there was not violent.
And in relation to the Oct. 8 incident, McLaughlin had previously said that the women in the car were "driving recklessly, including weaving between lanes and putting other motorists at risk."
"Following the driver abruptly stopping in the middle of traffic near a school, law enforcement approached the vehicle," she said. "The occupants refused to exit the vehicle and follow law enforcement commands."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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