DENVER — Court documents released on Monday detailed allegations from Denver Public Schools (DPS) of interruptions from immigration enforcement operations by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) near schools.
The documents stem from a court battle between DPS and DHS after the district filed for a temporary restraining order against DHS following a policy change that allows federal agents to make immigration arrests at or near schools.
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DHS initially responded with a motion saying that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operating in the Denver area were not affecting school operations and that the school district had not proven it had.
However, the district has challenged the motion, claiming ICE operations near schools are having an impact.
One DPS teacher at Denver Green School Southeast testified that the Feb. 5 ICE operation at Cedar Run Apartments in Denver affected students who tried to make it to class that day.
The teacher said he witnessed students' path to school and the DPS school bus stop being blocked by heavily armed federal agents.
"In a spot where there would normally be a DPS school bus, there was a prison transport bus," he recalled.
He also said he witnessed agents turning the school bus away when it arrived.
Once school started on Feb. 5, the teacher claimed about a third of his students were absent, and several others were crying. That day, students were kept inside during recess because they didn't know whether or not federal agents would be coming on school grounds.
According to the district, that was not an isolated incident.
DPS said attendance for February dropped 3% across the district compared to last year.
According to the district, some schools with large populations of new-to-the-country students have seen even higher drops.
The district also claims it has spent considerable time and energy responding to situations arising from the decision to allow immigration enforcement near schools.
DPS has "climate safety response teams (CSRT)" that respond to reports of immigration enforcement near schools.
The district claims there has been so much fear and uncertainty with their students, which has resulted in numerous false reports of immigration enforcement and CSRT responses.
The district hopes to convince a judge to grant the temporary restraining order.
In a rebuttal filed on Feb. 21 in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, DHS argued that the district’s claims lack legal standing.
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DHS stated that DPS officials misunderstood the department's internal guidance on immigration enforcement. Specifically, DHS clarified that while earlier guidance addressed enforcement actions in "protected areas" like schools, the 2021 Guidance did not prohibit such actions outright.
“In other words, even when no exigent circumstances were present, the 2021 Guidance allowed immigration officers, such as ICE officers, to conduct protected-area enforcement actions if they obtained approval from designated officials,” the response from the DHS states.
