Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has outlined a response to the Trump administration’s plan for “mass deportations.” Photo by Melanie Asmar at Chalkbeat

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Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said this week that the city will sue the Trump administration if it instructs federal immigration enforcement agents to detain Denver residents at schools, churches, hospitals, and other “sensitive locations.”

“If individuals are scared to go to the hospital if they’re sick or scared to take their children to school, it can have devastating impacts on the entire community,” a mayoral spokesperson wrote in response to questions from Chalkbeat about a Wednesday press release from Johnston’s office called “ICYMI: Denver’s Commonsense Approach to Trump Mass Deportation Plan.”

“If President Trump instructs ICE to begin going into the sensitive locations, Denver is prepared to take the administration to court and do everything within our legal authority to keep them safe,” the mayoral spokesperson wrote.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials announced Tuesday that they had rescinded a decades-old policy that treated schools and child care centers, among other institutions, as sensitive locations where immigration enforcement should generally not take place. Instead, the department is instructing immigration agents to use “common sense.”

Asked whether the city would sue proactively to prevent raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, at schools or whether its legal action would be in response to an incident, Johnston’s office said that “[s]hould the Trump Administration take any action in Denver we believe is unlawful, we will respond with legal challenges.”

Denver Public Schools has issued its own guidance to schools on what to do if ICE agents show up. The guidance says school staff should deny the agents entry and place the school on a secure perimeter, which means no one is allowed in or out.

School staff should ask the ICE agent for their identification and whether they have a warrant or court order, the guidance says, and then call the school district’s lawyers.

If students’ parents are detained in the community by immigration enforcement while their children are at school, educators will have to help decide where those children should go once the school day is over and who should be allowed to pick them up.

DPS is advising families to update their children’s emergency contact information in the district’s data portal to include someone who is not a parent or guardian. Parents should designate a trusted adult to care for their child if they’re not able to do so, the district’s guidance to families says. It encourages parents to discuss that plan with their children.

The Johnston administration said it is “preparing for the heartbreaking risk of children being separated from their parents.” The city is working on a plan to take custody of any children whose parents are detained or deported and placing the children with relatives or in foster care.

A spokesperson wrote that Denver will ensure children can visit with their parents “whenever legally possible” and work with immigration attorneys to navigate the legal process. The city will also notify consulates to begin “working across borders to identify a compassionate solution.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2025/01/24/denver-mayor-says-city-will-sue-to-stop-immigration-enforcement-at-schools/