ICE efforts ‘gone too far’: Schools, churches sue Trump administration over immigration
DENVER ‒ Kids afraid to go to school. Parishioners scared to attend church. Fathers unexpectedly swept into ICE custody at local courthouses.
The Trump administration's aggressive new immigration-detention policy has sparked a wave of concern and fear among immigrant communities, and now teachers and religious leaders are asking federal courts to intervene. Multiple religious groups have sued the Trump administration over the policy change, including Quakers, Jewish congregations and Mennonites.
President Donald Trump ran on a platform of tougher immigration enforcement, and has promised the largest deportation effort in history. But educators and religious leaders say those efforts have already gone too far, and are also violating the rights of American citizens.
Quaker congregations late last month said having ICE agents waiting outside their meeting houses ready to "interrupt the service and drag a congregant out during the middle of worship is anathema.
"Quakers believe that every person, no matter their background, can be a conduit for a message from the Divine," their lawsuit says. "Indeed, Quakers believe that those with varied life experiences — including immigrants —can provide unique messages from God."
For decades, federal immigration agents have generally avoided conducting enforcement sweeps or detentions at what the federal government deemed "sensitive" areas, although there were exceptions in emergencies.
The Biden administration in 2021 expanded the order, and schools, churches, hospitals and local courthouses were deemed generally off-limits in order to permit everyone ‒ including those living illegally in the United States ‒ access to worship, healthcare, education and the courts to resolve speeding tickets or other legal matters.
Trump immediately rescinded that longstanding policy, and instead told agents to use "common sense" in making arrests where necessary. The Biden expansion included bus stops and playgrounds, food pantries, as well as weddings and funerals.
In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind filing, Denver Public Schools on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block the change, arguing that kids are scared to go to class. During the first Trump administration, there were scattered reports of parents being taken into ICE custody after dropping their kids off at school.
Late last month, a school district near Denver sent a letter to parents noting an attendance decline since Trump took office, a statistic echoed by the Denver schools. Several school districts nationally with high numbers of immigration families have reported attendance drops this year, although it's unclear whether that's fully due to detention concerns or a high level of flu and other respiratory illnesses currently circulating.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees every child in the country, regardless of their immigration status, the right to a public education.
"Our students belong in their schools and deserve to feel safe," Denver schools Superintendent Alex Marrero wrote in a letter to parents Wednesday.
In Denver on Wednesday, ICE agents detained a man attending a local court hearing, leaving his 12-year-old son behind, the immigrant-rights group Colorado Rapid Response Network said.
During the first Trump administration, when the policy was still in place but agents were sometimes given leeway to ignore it, families facing deportation began sheltering within churches. The Trump administration has also sued Chicago and the states of Illinois and New York over laws limiting local police cooperation with immigration raids.
"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest," Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a Jan. 21 statement. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."