Federal judge rejects DPS’s request to block immigration enforcement at schools

A federal judge on Friday rejected a request from Denver Public Schools to block the Trump administration from carrying out immigration enforcement activity at schoolhouses across the country.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, denied the school district’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have prevented federal agents from making immigration arrests on school property.

DPS is believed to be the first school district in the nation to sue the Trump administration over the end of a policy last updated under President Joe Biden that largely prevented federal agents from making immigration arrests at schools.

A national group called Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 78 school systems across the U.S., filed an amicus brief in the case, backing DPS’ suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and stating that the policy change “coupled with aggressive messaging promising increases in enforcement actions has made schools objectively less safe and feel less safe.”

“This has impaired and will continue to impair the ability of schools to educate students and is causing immediate and irreparable harm in communities across the country,” the council wrote in the filing.

The federal government has largely prohibited immigration enforcement on school property and other so-called sensitive locations, such as churches and hospitals, for more than a decade. The Department of Homeland Security has argued in a court filing that the sensitive-locations policy hasn’t changed under the Trump administration despite the agency rescinding previous guidance.

But educators across metro Denver have grown concerned about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showing up in schools since Trump’s re-election in November. The president has promised mass deportations and his anti-immigrant rhetoric has occasionally targeted migrants in Aurora and Denver.

Both cities were sites of high-profile raids last month. ICE and other federal agents didn’t make any arrests at Denver schools on Feb. 5, but at least four DPS students were detained and the activity prevented several school buses from picking up children, according to the district.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston was also called before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday, where he was questioned by members of Congress about the city’s migrant-friendly immigration policies.

Johnston said in November that Denver might call on the city’s police force to resist if Trump used the military to help with immigration enforcement. The mayor, who later walked back that remark, has said he doesn’t support immigration arrests at schools, hospitals and churches and has said he will take legal action if raids occur at those places.

DPS’s lawsuit follows a flurry of others by a variety of states and groups across the nation that are suing the Trump administration because of the president’s various executive actions that affect not only immigration enforcement, but also federal funding and transgender rights.

Several religious groups sued the administration over changes to the sensitive-locations policy and a federal judge has narrowly prevented ICE agents from detaining people in certain houses of worship while the case moves forward.

In the DPS case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado argued on behalf of Homeland Security that district officials are incorrect in believing previous policy completely prevented enforcement activities at schools. The attorneys noted that while a new policy issued on Jan. 20 was less specific, it still allowed other departments to enact their own policies.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued its own guidance that again defined protected areas to include schools and required supervisory approval before enforcement action could be taken in those protected areas,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.

It does not appear any such policy has been announced publicly by ICE.

DPS attorneys argued in their lawsuit that even though arrests haven’t yet occurred on school property, the change in policy has created anxiety among parents and their children and has led families to keep students home from class.

District lawyers argued the drop in attendance “constitutes a clear threat to DPS’s stability” because school funding is calculated based on how many students are in a classroom.

DPS has welcomed more than 4,700 immigrant children into the district’s classrooms in recent years, enough to, at least temporarily, reverse a years-long decline in K-12 enrollment that is occurring because fewer babies are being born.

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.