Superintendent Alex Marrero sent a memo to Denver Public Schools’ principals last week ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to office, offering training about what they and their front-office staff should do if federal immigration officers show up at their schools.
School leaders, he wrote, should deny U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entry into their buildings. Next, staff should place those schools on a secure perimeter, meaning no one is allowed in or out.
Meanwhile, Marrero wrote, school staff should use the intercom to communicate with ICE officers, including asking for their badge numbers and whether they have a warrant. Then they should contact DPS’s lawyers.
If immigration agents are already in the building, Marrero noted, then administrators should keep them in the front office and instruct everyone else in the school to stay where they are.
“Ensuring the safety of our students and staff is our top priority and our most important responsibility as a district,” Marrero wrote in the document, which the district provided to The Denver Post. “…It is important that all leaders and their staff are aware of the current policies and procedures to follow should a government official arrive at your building and/or request records for information.”
School districts across metro Denver are preparing for the second Trump administration and the possibility federal immigration officers will come knocking at their doors by training staff and affirming their support of students and families regardless of their immigration status.
Aurora Public Schools issued similar directives to its staff in December about how to deal with ICE agents on campus. As the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado notes, ICE agents must be let in if they have warrants signed by judges — but not if they only have the administrative warrants the agency more commonly uses.
Neither the Denver nor Aurora school districts track the immigration status of students or their families.
Trump has repeatedly threatened mass deportations of people who are in the country illegally, and Colorado educators fear his administration will revoke a 14-year-old federal policy that has prevented ICE officers from arresting people at schools.
“At this point, a lot of what we are doing is preparing for a variety of possible scenarios and moments,” Denver school board member Scott Esserman said. “…There’s a real threat and fear for those families that exist beyond whether or not that policy is rescinded.”
DPS and other metro school districts have welcomed thousands of immigrant children into their classrooms in recent years. The unexpected wave of students strained school resources as administrators rushed to hire enough Spanish-speaking teachers, paraprofessionals and special education staff.
But despite those challenges, educators rallied to help children and their families find housing and set up donation closets at their schools with food and clothes to make sure their students were fed and warm.
The students’ arrival came as enrollment in public schools across Colorado has plummeted, primarily due to falling birth rates. That has placed financial pressure on districts as state funding is tied to the number of pupils in their classrooms.
As fewer students attend public schools statewide, the enrollment of Latino students jumped 3% and the enrollment of multilingual learners rose 10% since the 2023-24 academic year, according to data released last week by the Colorado Department of Education.
The surge of students from migrant families into Colorado schools has been so significant that it reversed — at least temporarily — the years-long decline in K-12 enrollment at metro districts including DPS, meaning they don’t just have more students, but more funding for their schools.
DPS, which teaches in excess of 90,000 students, received more than 4,700 immigrant students last academic year, the majority of which still attend school in the district.
Now, with the incoming Trump administration, district officials and educators across the metro area are afraid parents who are afraid of deportation will stop sending their children to school.
“There’s fear,” said Marlene De La Rosa, vice president of the Denver school board. “Fear of being arrested, so sometimes people stay home and they don’t even send their kids to school.
“We want to make sure that they have their kids in school,” she added. “We want them to be educated.”
Uncertainty over ICE’s “sensitive locations” policy
A 2011 policy has prevented ICE agents from arresting people at “sensitive locations,” including schools, churches and hospitals.
“Currently, we cannot take action based on policy in those areas unless there are exigent circumstances,” said Kelei Walker, acting field director for Denver ICE.
“Those requirements will most likely live on,” she added. “I don’t expect that we will really see too much change there because there are sensitive populations that are around those areas, so we have plenty of areas to focus on that don’t impact that.”
But NBC News reported in December that the Trump administration plans to rescind the “sensitive locations” policy, possibly as soon as his first day back in office.
“It is very likely that he is going to change this policy memo that has categorically exempted certain locations from enforcement actions,” said Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has said the city will not cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation plan. The state’s sanctuary laws also limit the action local law enforcement can take in regards to immigration enforcement, but many sheriff’s offices alert ICE before releasing inmates wanted on civil immigration detainers from jail.
Even if the sensitive locations policy isn’t rescinded, the incoming administration’s mass deportation plan could affect classrooms across the state.
Children’s academic progress and emotional well-being are affected when they fear that they or their parents will be deported, said Kim Manning Ursetta, a bilingual DPS teacher on special assignment with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
“Educators are prepared to protect their students at any cost as we are any day,” she said. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty right now that we are dealing with.”
“Our educators are definitely concerned”
School systems began bracing for potential changes to immigration enforcement days after Trump’s re-election.
The Cherry Creek School District sent a copy of the 2011 “sensitive locations” policy to principals in November.
“It is too soon to understand the full extent of what a second Trump administration could mean for K-12 education and our students and their families,” said Lauren Snell, spokeswoman for the district, in a statement.
“We are having conversations and planning for a variety of scenarios that could impact our students and our community,” she said. “We remain fully committed to protecting our students and schools and ensuring all students have equal access to quality public education.”
In December, Aurora Public Schools officials provided administrators with a list of immigration service resources that educators can share with students and their families.
A district representative did not return requests for comment, but last month APS officials also sent employees a memo detailing the steps they should take if ICE agents show up at a school.
Aurora garnered national attention after Trump repeatedly exaggerated claims that violent Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city. The president-elect named his mass deportation plan “Operation Aurora.”
“Our educators are definitely concerned for the potential of immigration enforcement at our schools, but also on the broader effect of the community,” said Linnea Reed-Ellis, president of the Aurora Education Association. “…Trump’s rhetoric has just added a layer of stress or something additional to worry about in our schools.”
The Aurora school district’s procedures are similar to DPS’s. If an ICE agent shows up at a school, then staff are to ask the officer to wait while they call the district’s lawyers. School administrators can ask the officer to wait outside of the school or in the front office, according to the memo.
“To be clear, we do not have any indication that there has been or will be immigration actions in our schools or on our district property,” APS officials wrote in the Dec. 5 memo. “At the same time, we want our families and students to know and feel comforted by the fact that we are prepared for any possibility.”
Reed-Ellis said she attended training offered via the district in December that taught educators their rights and reminded teachers that their role is not to determine the validity of a warrant, but to create a safe and calm learning environment for their students.
“We’re all wondering what’s going to happen,” she said.
Denver Post reporter Shelly Bradbury contributed to this report.
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