Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced the rescission of the “sensitive location” immigration enforcement guidelines. This policy previously restricted immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, including places like schools, hospitals, and places of worship. This policy had been in place for more than 30 years and provided much-needed stability and certainty to schools across the country.
Denver Public Schools filed a temporary restraining order to immediately prohibit DHS from revoking the sensitive location status for schools. This emergency filing is in response to the negative impact this recession has had on our DPS community over the past month.
Last week, during raids of apartment buildings near some of our schools, the impacts were as real as they could be. I looked into the eyes of students and parents who were gripped by fear — fear of separation, fear of uncertainty, fear of what tomorrow might bring. One student, voice shaking, told me they didn’t know if their family would still be together by the end of the school day. A parent, in tears, shared how they hesitated before dropping their child off, afraid they might not be there to pick them up.
In DPS, our most important core value is “students first.” It is not just a statement; it is a commitment — one that obligates us to ensure every student, regardless of their immigration status, feels safe and supported in their pursuit of education. Unfortunately, the rescission of the sensitive location policy has created immense uncertainty, not only for our new-to-country scholars but for all students and staff.
Beyond the obvious impacts on immigrant communities, I have heard from parents and students of all backgrounds who now feel anxious about simply attending school, worried that non-emergency law enforcement action could disrupt the safety of their classrooms. No child should have to weigh the risk of enforcement over the right to an education. No family should have to question whether school remains a place of refuge. We must do everything in our power to protect that sanctuary.
Filing for this temporary restraining order is a vital step towards returning our classrooms to normalcy. No student is at their best when under anxiety or stress. We know that when students are preoccupied with worry or fear, they have less mental energy to devote to learning tasks, process new information, struggle with focus and memory, and have difficulty with recall and retention of information.
Beyond the struggles that fear creates in the classroom, we have also seen a dramatic decrease in attendance during days when ICE activities are taking place in the community. Students can’t learn if they aren’t present.
DPS has therefore spent significant time and resources attempting to address this change to ensure student safety, including training staff and faculty how to effectively respond to encounters with individuals claiming to be conducting immigration enforcement activities on school grounds. This issue is compounded by the fact that schools are uncertain as to what the new federal policy entails. As a result, we have had to divert significant amounts of our limited resources to prepare for a change of policy, the scope of which is unknown.
I want to be clear, DPS is not anti-law enforcement, nor are we directing our staff to obstruct federal agents. Simply put, our mission is to educate our students while keeping them safe.
That becomes unnecessarily difficult with the potential of non-emergency law enforcement action taking place in our classrooms, on the playground, or on our buses.
I want to reassure our families and DPS community that our schools remain a safe and welcoming environment regardless of a student’s background or immigration status. It is our responsibility, but it is also the law, to provide an education to all students. We will continue to do that to ensure every learner in the Denver Public Schools thrives.
Alex Marrero is the superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
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