DENVER, Colo. — Denver Public Schools board members are discussing a policy at Thursday’s board meeting that would provide stronger protections for students and families against immigration enforcement.
Denver-based advocacy group Movimiento Poder called the situation "urgent" after hearing stories from Denver Public School families about their experiences.
“We do know of instances where ICE has tried to contact students during lunch hour, during dismissal,” said Movimiento Poder's interim executive director Berenice Aguirre. “Our students are scared to go to school.”
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The proposed policy language would be added to Denver Public Schools' exisiting policy and would establish comprehensive protections against federal immigration enforcement in all DPS and charter school properties.
Denver7 spoke with DPS board president Xochitl Gaytan, a proponent of the policy change.
“We've seen in other cities in the nation where federal authorities have overstepped their bounds and have detained parents at children's schools, and so what measures can we take as the Denver school board to be able to protect our students and DPS employees alike?”
The proposal would designate schools and bus stops as "safe zones," stop DPS staff from working with federal immigration agents unless they have a warrant, and prevent SROs from issuing citations or making arrests that could lead to student deportation.
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“We know that there are some questions about what we proposed. So we're willing to collaborate, to work together to ensure that something passes soon, and to ensure that those protections are put in place sooner rather than later,” Aguirre added.
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In a statement the Department of Homeland Security said it does not raid or target schools, adding that its officers would need secondary approval before action could be taken in a school setting — something the agency says is extremely rare.
“There's accusations that ICE is coming into the schools, and they're going after people in the schools, when the reality was they simply were chasing someone who ended up at a school,” State Senator Mark Baisley told Denver7.
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But advocates and district leaders like Gaytan tell us attendance rates have gone down — and they believe it’s due to families’ fear.
The policy, they hope, could change that.
“I think we'll see students attending school more than they are, and it's really just kind of a safety net,” said Milo Marquez, chair of the Latino Education Coalition.
The DPS Board of Education will discuss the policy at Thursday night’s board meeting. Denver7 will update this article as the story develops.
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