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The Trump administration says a judge should reject Denver Public Schools’ attempt to block immigration enforcement actions at schools because the district can’t show that it’s happened anywhere or that the prospect of enforcement has caused sufficient harm.
That’s according to a motion filed by attorneys for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Denver Public Schools sued the federal department on Feb. 12 in an attempt to void a Trump administration policy that clears the way for immigration enforcement to take place at “sensitive locations,” including schools, child care centers, churches, and hospitals.
Denver Public Schools argued that student attendance had “decreased noticeably” since the Trump administration rescinded a decades-old policy last month that said immigration enforcement should only take place at sensitive locations if there is immediate danger to the public.
The school district also argued that it had been “forced to divert resources from its educational mission to prepare for immigration arrests on DPS school grounds.”
The school district filed the lawsuit a week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids at apartment complexes in Denver and Aurora on Feb. 5. In legal filings, district officials described terrified students and parents, anguished teachers, and diverted school buses.
In its response Friday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said there have been no raids at schools in Denver or elsewhere since the policy was rescinded. The department argued that the drops in Denver’s student attendance were not caused by the changing guidance.
“Rather, the evidence shows that any drop is the result of fears among students and parents, not any actual enforcement actions by DHS at schools, and may relate to false reports of immigration enforcement at schools or enforcement actions that did not take place on school grounds or at bus stops,” the department’s motion says.
The department also argued that Denver Public Schools leaders misunderstood the previous policy about sensitive locations. That policy, versions of which date back to 1993, “did not bar immigration enforcement actions at schools,” the motion says. Rather, it said such actions were permitted “either with prior higher-level approval or under exigent circumstances.” The previous policy was last updated in 2021 under then-President Joe Biden.
The new guidance, issued soon after President Donald Trump took office in January, instructs ICE agents to use discretion “and a healthy dose of common sense.”
“DPS has not shown that the 2021 Guidance would have prohibited the DHS enforcement action taken on February 5, 2025, which was not at a school or bus stop,” the department’s motion said, referring to the raids in Denver and Aurora.
“DPS’s argument that it will face harm from immigration enforcement only if DHS operates under the 2025 Guidance is thus too speculative to show irreparable harm,” it said.
The department argued that barring immigration enforcement actions at or near Denver Public Schools’ 207 schools or its bus stops “could significantly limit immigration enforcement.”
“Much of Denver is close to a school,” the motion says.
The department also challenged Denver Public Schools’ argument that the Trump administration policy, issued in a pair of January memos from the then-acting directors of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, had not been publicly released and amounted to “a final agency action that occurred entirely behind closed doors.”
The department described the memos as “merely an internal advisement” to immigration enforcement agents and said one of the memos is now posted on ICE’s website. The website shows that the Jan. 31 memo was posted on Feb. 18, after the Denver district filed its lawsuit.
In response to a similar lawsuit from several religious organizations, a federal judge in Maryland on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s policy with regard to ICE enforcement at churches and other houses of worship. But the ruling doesn’t extend to schools.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
