Denver Public Schools reaffirms support for immigrant students, vows protection against “unlawful federal overreach”

Denver Public Schools leaders reaffirmed their support for all students regardless of immigration status following a report that the second Trump administration plans to revoke a policy that for more than a decade has largely stopped federal immigration officials from arresting people without documentation at schools.

The district has its own policy that prohibits “federal immigration law enforcement activities” from taking place at DPS schools, on buses, on district property or at other school activities, according to the joint statement issued Friday by Superintendent Alex Marrero and the Board of Education.

DPS policy also prohibits district employees from collecting information regarding the immigration status of children in Denver schools and sharing it with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to the statement.

“Please know that DPS will do everything we can to ensure safe and disruption-free learning environments by protecting our community from any unlawful federal overreach,” Marrero and the school board wrote in the statement.

NBC News reported last week that President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a federal policy that prevents ICE agents from arresting people at “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and places of worship.

The reporting comes as Trump has called for mass deportations of people who are in the country without authorization and as districts across the nation are preparing for potential impacts, including whether the incoming president’s threats will lead immigrant parents to stop sending their children to school.

DPS officials’ show of support for immigrant students follows high-profile comments by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who has said the city will not cooperate with the president-elect’s mass deportation plan. He even went so far as to suggest he would use the Denver Police Department to stand against the federal government, though he has since tempered those comments.

Caitlin Trent, policy director for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said her organization is working with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and other policy makers “to figure out all the legalities and various jurisdictions” should Trump revoke ICE’s “sensitive locations” policy.

“We want to safeguard protections at the local level and are examining our possibilities,” Trent said in a statement.

Nationwide, educators are training staff on how to act in the event of raids and assuring families their kids are safe on campus.

For more than a decade, schools have been largely off-limits for immigration enforcement. In 2011, ICE adopted a policy urging agents to avoid arresting immigrants near schools, hospitals and churches so as not to discourage them from attending to essential parts of life.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has recommended that the next Trump administration rescind the “sensitive locations” policy. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, but has chosen people who worked on the policy roadmap for his next government, including Tom Homan as “border czar.”

In case schools become a target for arrests of parents or students, some districts are training staff, especially those who control access to the front doors at schools, to block immigration agents from entering without a valid warrant. They are also training school clerks and others to not share student information with agents.

School officials say children can’t learn if they’re afraid they or their parents will be detained on campus. They also say these practices safeguard immigrant students’ right to a free public education.

It’s unclear whether Trump will follow through with his plans to change federal policy and allow arrests at schools — or, in Denver, how DPS will respond.

DPS spokesman Scott Pribble said “it would be inappropriate to speculate on potential changes and their impacts at this time.”

“We simply do not know enough about potential changes to responsibly comment,” he said in a statement. “However, DPS will continue to stand by our values and do everything we can to provide safe learning environments for our students and staff.”

Denver Public Schools is Colorado’s largest district, with 88,235 students as of the 2023-24 academic year. The district serves a majority — 75% — of students of color and 52% of the student population is Latino, according to the latest data from the Colorado Department of Education.

DPS, along with other districts in metro Denver, saw a surge in hundreds of migrant students arriving from the southern border last academic year. District and school officials welcomed the new arrivals, who boosted enrollment in DPS after a years-long drop in students.

District officials will work with local law enforcement officials “to the extent required by law in regards to federal demands and policing,” according to the statement.

“Regardless of actions taken, DPS will continue to follow the law and provide an education to all students regardless of their immigration status,” Marrero and the board said in their statement. “We will also continue to protect the personal information of all of our students and staff and will not share it unless required by law.”

Movimiento Poder, which advocates for racial justice in DPS schools, is working on a new resolution that it hopes the district will adopt in response to Trump’s deportation plans. The policy is still in the works, but will ask DPS officials to share more resources with immigrant families regarding the district’s current policies, among other things, said Flor Canales, spokeswoman for the organization.

Movimiento Poder worked on a similar resolution that was passed by the board in 2017 and established the district’s policies of not sharing families’ immigration status with law enforcement and not allowing ICE to make arrests on DPS property, she said.

“These threats could jeopardize the safety… of many of our families and, as a district, we have to be ready to respond,” Canales told the Denver school board during a meeting Monday evening.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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