US law entitles immigrant children to an education. Some conservatives say that should change

BOSTON (AP) — At a sparsely attended meeting last year, the Saugus Public School Committee approved a new admissions policy, it said, to streamline the process of enrolling students.

But critics say the policy — including stringent requests for proof of “legal” residency and “criminal and civil penalties” for violators — has another goal: keeping immigrants out of the small school district outside Boston.

The debate over welcoming immigrant children into America’s schools extends far beyond the Boston suburbs. Advocates fear it could figure more prominently into a national agenda if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Conservative politicians in states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee are questioning whether immigrants without legal residency should have the right to a public education, raising the possibility of challenges to another landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.

For decades, children of families living in the country illegally have had the right to attend public school based on a 1982 Supreme Court decision known as Plyler v. Doe. In a 5-4 vote, justices held it is unconstitutional to deny children an education based on their immigration status.

The new Saugus policy requires new students to share immigration records and says children must be “legal residents whose actual residence is in Saugus," where the share of students who are learning English has nearly tripled to 31% over the last decade. Families must also complete a town census, sign a residency statement and provide occupancy and identity documents.

Civil rights attorneys say the requirements are onerous and violate federal law by disproportionately harming students from immigrant families, who may lack many of the required documents, regardless of whether they're living in the country legally.

The chairman of the Saugus school committee, Vincent Serino, said during the meeting the policy is “tightening up” of existing residency rules and is not intended to keep out immigrants.

But a Nicaraguan woman said it took six months for her to enroll her 8-year-old child because of the document requirements. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her child would face retaliation, said the town wouldn’t accept her lease and her complaints to the school were rebuffed.

Growing attempts to undermine Plyler v. Doe should be taken seriously, immigration experts say, pointing to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s readiness to overturn longstanding legal precedent, notably on abortion rights and affirmative action in higher education.

Trump, a Republican, has made immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign, vowing to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history if elected. He refers to immigrants as “animals” and “killers” and has spoken of immigrant children bringing disease into classrooms. A photo displayed at a recent Trump rally showed a crowded classroom with the words “Open border = packed classrooms.”

There is no disputing immigrant populations have strained schools in many communities, contributing to crowded classrooms and forcing teachers to adapt to large numbers of Spanish-speaking students.

But until recently, the idea of denying children an education would have been considered “too far to the right and too far fringe,” said Tom K. Wong, director of the U.S. immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego. “But now we are seeing a political climate where previously fringe policies are becoming mainstream.”

Earlier this year, the conservative Heritage Foundation urged states to pass legislation requiring public schools to charge tuition to families living in the country illegally. Doing so, it said in a policy brief, would provoke a lawsuit that likely would "lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its ill-considered Plyler v. Doe decision.”

Over the summer, Oklahoma's education superintendent, Ryan Walters, announced his agency would be issuing guidance to districts about gathering information on the “costs and burden” of illegal immigration to school districts.

“The federal government has failed to secure our borders. Our schools are suffering over this,” Walters said.

Several school districts have pushed back, saying they will not check students' immigration status.

“Federal law is quite clear on this topic, as it prohibits districts from asking students or their families about their immigration status or to request documentation of their citizenship,” said Chris Payne, a spokesperson for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, outlining a common interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.

In Tennessee, a proposal for universal school vouchers by Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, led to debate over whether immigrant students should be excluded. The idea appealed to many of the Legislature’s conservative members, but some worried the exclusion would spark legal challenges. Ultimately, Lee abandoned his voucher proposal after several aspects of the plan failed to gain support.

The Saugus school committee in Massachusetts approved its admissions policy at a committee meeting in August 2023, two days after Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency over the state’s migrant crisis. At the time, Healey said nearly 5,600 families — many of them immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela — were living in state shelters, up from about 3,100 families the year before.

Serino, the school committee chairman, said the group began considering updating its residency policy more than a year before migrants became an issue in the state. He said the policy requires documents like a signed landlord affidavit or property tax bill, “simple stuff that everyone has.”

“We haven't hurt anyone and no one has come to us — no migrant, no parent has come to us to complain about the policy,” Serino said.

Local legal advocates say the policy has been a hurdle for at least two immigrant families trying to enroll in Saugus schools. Lawyers For Civil Rights and the group Massachusetts Advocates for Children said it took their intervention to get the students into the school.

“The policy itself is illegal,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights. “Schools should be welcoming (all) children who are in the district and educating them.”

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in 2022 that Plyler v. Doe should be challenged and the federal government should pay for the public education of students who are not legal residents. He drew backlash from immigrant advocates and the White House. The following year, Republican lawmakers in Texas introduced several unsuccessful bills aimed at limiting non-citizen children from enrolling in public schools.

In June, the idea also was included in the Republican Party of Texas platform.

The party’s priorities for the upcoming Legislative season include “ending all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens, except for emergency medical care.”

Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this article. Gecker reported from San Francisco.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross Franklin)

Supports react as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross Franklin)

A message about Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris appears on a video screen before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A TV reporter puts on make up while Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump delivers a speech during a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A supporter holds a 'Secure our Border' sign as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - A member of the Texas delegation holds a sign during the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

A message about borders and classrooms appears on a video screen as supporters arrive before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Reno, Nev. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump salutes at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 11, 2026--

Torq, the established Agentic AI security operations pioneer, today announced it has closed a massive $140 million Series D funding round, propelling its valuation to $1.2 billion and total funding to $332M.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112510774/en/

Led by Merlin Ventures —a leading cybersecurity fund renowned for its deep access to the U.S. commercial and Public Sector markets—with participation from all existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners, this capital injection is a definitive investment in the future of security. Torq is driving the industry’s critical shift: the complete transformation of the Security Operations Center (SOC) through battle-tested AI Agents at enterprise scale.

The new funds will accelerate the adoption of the Torq AI SOC Platform, the only end-to-end solution built on the pillars of advanced Hyperautomation, Alert Triage, and Fatigue Reduction to deliver full operational autonomy for global enterprises and government agencies.

“Torq is redefining security operations,” said Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures. “They’ve fused automation and human judgment into a new AI SOC Platform built for asymmetric threats and real-world scale. This is why Merlin is leading the investment. Our focus now is speed—accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations.”

Torq Delivers On the Promise of the AI SOC

“This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market. We are moving far beyond the constraints of legacy SOAR and SIEM, harnessing the Agentic AI Era to deliver outcomes our customers rely on,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and co-founder, Torq. “Global enterprise adoption of our AI SOC Platform has validated our vision for the future of security operations. We have achieved tremendous revenue growth, with Fortune 100 customers adopting our AI Agents in their SOCs for everything from investigation to response. Our partnership with Merlin Ventures is the definitive signal that Torq is now ready to scale this massive customer success into the high-stakes Federal and Public Sector markets.”

The Growth Engine: Massive AI Agent Adoption

The primary driver behind Torq’s 2025 growth is the unprecedented adoption of its AI Agents across its global customer base. Unlike legacy security tools that require extensive professional services, Torq AI Agents are designed for self-service, enabling security teams to build and deploy sophisticated agents with minimal effort.

Today, Torq AI Agents are deeply embedded in the daily operations of Fortune 500 SOCs, managing millions of complex security tasks autonomously. This "bottom-up" adoption has transformed Torq from a specialized tool into the primary platform for the modern SOC.

“Torq delivers fast, measurable value to Valvoline’s SOC and eliminates the manual tasks that once consumed our analysts’ time,” said Corey Kaemming, CISO, Valvoline. “Within 48 hours of deployment, our team was using Torq’s AI SOC Platform for automating phishing triage, accelerating alert handling, and reducing response times across the board. The results were transformative. Analysts reclaimed hours of time, containment actions became automatic, and the security team evolved from reactive responders to proactive strategists. Torq took the vision that was in our heads and actually put it into practice. My team is in love with Torq.”

Strategic Expansion Into the Federal Market

Torq's partnership with lead investor Merlin Ventures has accelerated Torq’s traction within the U.S. Federal and Public Sector markets. With nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market, Merlin Ventures provides Torq with the strategic support and deep government relationships necessary to navigate complex compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, and rapidly scale the Torq AI SOC Platform to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure.

Explosive Growth and Enterprise Maturity Validation

The Series D affirms Torq’s proven market traction and maturity. In 2025 alone, the company delivered significant customer expansion, demonstrating that the Torq AI SOC Platform is built for complex, multinational security environments. Torq now protects hundreds of multinational enterprises, including Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic.

Torq Leads the Shift To AI Agents: Autonomous Investigations and Advanced Automation

Torq is driving this transformation through its singular Agentic AI foundation. In 2025, Torq solidified its market lead by delivering the most advanced multi-agent security capabilities, backed by the strategic acquisition of RevRod. This proven platform empowers SOC teams through two critical product pillars:

“We’re always innovating our security operations approach at Virgin Atlantic and the Torq AI SOC Platform is driving significant benefits for us,” said John White, CISO, Virgin Atlantic. “Today, innovation stems from an AI-first approach, which Torq excels at. Torq is making our security operations simpler and more efficient, and providing us with complete coverage across our security stack. Torq is now our umbrella platform.”

About Torq

Torq is transforming cybersecurity with the Torq AI SOC platform. Torq empowers enterprises to instantly and precisely detect and respond to security events at scale. Torq’s customer base includes major multinational enterprise customers, including Abnormal Security, Armis, Check Point Security, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inditex (Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear), Informatica, Kyocera, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Telefonica, Valvoline, Virgin Atlantic, and Wiz.

About Merlin Ventures

Merlin Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Merlin Group, a network of companies with nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market. Merlin Ventures rapidly scales visionary companies and introduces disruptive solutions designed to help enterprises address today's most critical cybersecurity challenges. Its unique business model combines robust infrastructure and capital, technical advisory and engineering advisory, market readiness acceleration, and deep-rooted government and industry relationships that enable its portfolio to rapidly grow and scale. Learn more at merlin.vc.

Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era