BOSTON — The notorious Valdez brothers, alleged to have operated one of the largest heroin rings in New England, have managed to avoid permanent deportation despite being tried and convicted for a litany of criminal offenses that date back to at least 1989.
Federal officials bagged the Dominican brothers Claudio, Hector, and Juan Valdez last week in a highly publicized bust, along with 12 other individuals identified as conspirators scattered across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, in connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ongoing Operation Triple Play.
An interesting game is being played by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), the major sponsor of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and by others who claim that ESSA both reduces federal control and restores some state and local control.
ESSA does allow states some leeway on how they choose to address accountability to the federal government, although their choices are subject to review by the U.S. Department of Education and the final chapter has not yet been written on the "peer review" process for state plans by federal education officials. (Nor is it clear that this process is constitutional.)
