Students walked out of several Denver high schools to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies on Feb. 5, the same day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided several apartment complexes in Denver and Aurora. (Eli Imadali for Chalkbeat)
A federal judge on Friday rejected Denver Public Schools’ attempt to reinstate a federal policy that treated schools as “sensitive locations” where immigration enforcement should only take place if there is immediate danger to the public.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico said there is little practical difference between the prior policy, the last iteration of which was issued in 2021 under former President Biden, and a pair of memos issued by the Trump administration in January.
“The concern was that there would be no limitations or no protections for schools, necessarily, under the new memo,” Domenico said in a ruling from the bench. “That is an overstatement. And the fact that there have been no actions on school property in the time since the memo was released here, or as far as we know anywhere else, highlights that fact.”
Neither the old nor the new policy completely bans immigration enforcement actions at schools and other sensitive locations. The 2021 policy allowed such actions “either with prior higher-level approval or under exigent circumstances.” The new guidance from the Trump administration instructs ICE agents to use discretion “and a healthy dose of common sense.”
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Denver Public Schools sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 12 and requested a preliminary injunction that would have voided the Trump policy in favor of the previous iteration while the legal case proceeds. A week earlier, on Feb. 5, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had raided apartment complexes in Denver and Aurora where some students lived, which the district said caused drops in attendance and widespread fear.
But Domenico said it’s uncertain whether reverting to the 2021 policy would have prevented the ICE raid at Denver’s Cedar Run apartment complex, which is located near several schools.
“I do understand that attendance is down from last year, particularly in schools with high populations of immigrant families,” Domenico said, referencing one of the main arguments that Denver Public Schools made in its lawsuit. “Teachers and administrators are having to spend some portion of their time responding to these concerns.”
But Domenico said Denver Public Schools failed to show how much, if any, of that impact was caused by the Trump administration’s guidance “as opposed to broader concerns about increased immigration enforcement.”
Domenico was nominated to the court by Trump during his first term as president. Born and raised in Boulder, Domenico said Friday that his mother was a teacher who taught English as a second language to immigrant students and that he understands that “it’s a hard thing to run a school.”
“I do not think DPS has met its high burden in this case,” Domenico said.
