DENVER (AP) — Immigration authorities don't need to revert to a Biden-era policy limiting arrests at schools after officials in Denver challenged new policies from the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico said Denver Public Schools failed to prove that a drop in attendance was due to the Trump administration's new policy. It wasn’t clear how much of the fear surrounding possible enforcement actions in schools was really due to the new rules as opposed to broader concerns of increased immigration actions, he said.
The new policy has not yet been acted upon, according to a group representing large urban school districts across the U.S.
Besides a drop in attendance, Denver Public Schools says it has had to divert resources to respond to fear among students and families over the lifting of longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools, churches and other sensitive locations.
“This includes providing mental health support to students, diverting administrator attention from academics to immigration issues, and assisting students who miss school to catch up,” lawyers for the school district said in their request to block the new rules.
The ruling came just days after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and the Democratic leaders of other cities were in Washington to answer questions from Republican members of Congress about their their so-called sanctuary city policies that they see as undermining President Donald Trump’s immigration and mass deportation efforts. The lawsuit was brought by the school district, not the city.
Under the previous “sensitive locations” guidance issued in 2021, officers were generally required to get approval for any enforcement operations at those locations, although exceptions were allowed for matters like national security. The change announced in January by the acting leader of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement, scrapped that guidance and emphasized that field agents should use “common sense” and “discretion” to conduct immigration enforcement operations.
However, Domenico noted that the head of ICE later issued a directive for its officers that immigration arrests at sensitive places like schools still had to be approved by supervisors. The fear over the new rules, as well as the belief that the old rules provided protection to schools, both seem to be “overstated", Domenico said.
Domenico, a Trump appointee and Colorado's former solicitor general, denied a request that he grant a nationwide preliminary injunction forcing immigration officials to revert to the 2021 guidance.
Denver Public Schools issued a statement expressing disappointment in his ruling, while asserting that its lawsuit was successful in making public details of the Trump administration rules.
Arrests at schools have been rare. According to data from ICE cited by lawyers for Denver schools, there were only two immigration arrests made in schools between 2018 and 2020 along with 18 arrests near schools.
There have not been any arrests at schools under the new policy as of last week, according to a filing submitted by the Council of the Great City Schools in support of Denver’s lawsuit.
Last month, a federal judge in Maryland blocked immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for Quakers and a handful of other religious groups after they filed a lawsuit challenging the directive. The order does not apply to any religious groups beyond the ones who brought the lawsuit.
