October 29, 2025 - Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) joined Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and five of their Senate colleagues in demanding the Trump Administration take immediate action to ensure the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stops conducting aggressive, extreme, and dangerous civil enforcement activities within 1,000 feet of school properties. In their letter to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the Senators call on her to hold DHS accountable for the harmful impacts of Trump’s reckless immigration enforcement actions and protect students’ right to learn in a safe and secure environment. Earlier this year, Senators Cortez Masto and Rosen helped introduce a bill to protect sensitive locations – like schools and churches – from immigration enforcement.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)

“We recognize you support eliminating your job as Secretary of Education through the destruction of the U.S. Department of Education. However, so long as taxpayers are paying your salary, you are responsible for protecting the right of children to learn in a safe and secure environment, free of the chaos and fear inflicted by out-of-control Federal agents recklessly using chemical agents and excessive force within footsteps of school grounds,” wrote the Senators.

In recent events across Chicago, federal agents have used chemical agents and excessive force, including pointing weapons at and arresting American citizens, within steps of school grounds – putting students’ health at risk from exposure to toxic chemicals and even forcing schools into lockdown. On October 3, a federal agent threw multiple canisters of tear gas to disperse a single motorcycle driver blocking the agents’ way while operating less than 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.

“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,” continued the Senators. “All students deserve to attend school and learn without fear of being tear gassed, witnessing violence or becoming the target of indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”

Read the full letter here. Additional signatories include Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

Source: Senator Catherine Cortez Masto