DENVER — Denver Public Schools (DPS) is seeking an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following a policy change that allows immigration enforcement agents to make arrests at schools.
Last month, the Trump administration rescinded policies put in place in 2021 that prevented U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from making arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and hospitals. The origins of such policies date back to 1993.
A DHS directive issued on Jan. 20 states that officers "frequently apply enforcement discretion to balance a variety of interests, including the degree to which any law enforcement action occurs in a sensitive location."
"Going forward, law enforcement officers should continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense," the directive continues.
DPS is looking to reinstate the sensitive areas policy and protect schools.
"We should not have to wake up each and every day and wonder if this is a day they're going to come to the schools because we know that they're coming to the communities," DPS Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero told Denver7 Wednesday.
- Watch Marrero's full interview in the video player below. The video has been edited for clarity.
Marrero said the recent federal operations in the Denver metro have impacted students and their families.
"How devastating that raid was in our community, I can't put into words," the superintendent told Denver7. "[You have] a parent who's telling their child, 'Run to school,' because, in essence, save yourself."
The lawsuit, which names DHS and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, alleges that DPS is "hindered in fulfilling its mission" to the students who are not attending school "for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds." The document claims the district has diverted resources from its educational mission to prepare for immigration arrests.
"Each and every day is just wondering whether we're going to meet our attendance goals. And in certain cases, when there's advocacy happening — and rightfully so — we don't even know if we can open up schools because we may not have the workforce that we need to maintain the ratios to protect our children. It's just not sustainable," Marrerro said.
The superintendent believes removing schools as protected areas will only further hurt the DPS community.
"Everyone functions under the notion that schools are the safe haven. Let's continue to function in that way. We shouldn't have to live in fear. So that's why we're taking this approach," he said.
The lawsuit, which is the first of its kind to be filed by a public school, was filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Marrero hopes an injunction comes quickly and expects a decision on the matter within two weeks.
DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin sent Denver7 the following statement in response:
“We are protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the previous Administration. DHS’s directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs. For context: Our agents use discretion. Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”
DPS is currently under investigation by the Trump administration after East High School recently installed an all-gender multi-stall restroom.
"Denver Public Schools is already a target, and I weighed that heavily, but in a situation where folks are looking for us to do something as opposed to what we have done well, which is prepare and inform, but we can't do this for four years now," Marrero said.
- Read the full lawsuit below
U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, have introduced legislation in Congress to restore those protected areas.
The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act would prevent ICE from making arrests within 1,000 feet of sensitive locations, which the bill defines as schools, churches, food pantries, healthcare facilities, bus stops, playgrounds, daycare centers, vaccination and testing sites, weddings, funerals, rallies, marches, parades and several other locations.
“The Trump administration’s efforts to allow ICE to take enforcement action in protected areas are deeply concerning and go against long-standing precedent,” Bennet said. “Every Coloradan should feel safe to go to school, church, and the doctor without fear of arrest.”
The bill makes exceptions for exigent circumstances, such as "the imminent risk of death, violence, or physical harm to any person, including a situation implicating terrorism or the national security of the United States in some other manner." The bill states law enforcement actions at sensitive locations must cease when the exigent circumstance ends.
“We all want criminals off our streets and a more secure border,” Hickenlooper said. “Targeting kids and families who haven’t committed a crime — especially at their schools, hospitals, or places of worship — doesn’t get us any closer to fixing our broken immigration system.”
Republican Rep. Gabe Evans — a former police officer who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District — said law enforcement officers are careful when deciding whether to visit a sensitive location.
“Every time that I made a custodial arrest as a police officer, there was already a balancing act that you had to do with the threat to public safety versus the law enforcement action that needed to be taken,” said Evans. "And so, if you see arrests happening in these sensitive places, the chances are that there is a very high public safety nexus that requires that arrest to happen at a hospital, at a school."
Evans said the legislation Bennet and Hickenlooper are pushing Congress to pass could put more people in harm's way because criminals would know where to hide.
Denver7's Colette Bordelon contributed to this report.
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