‘I’m going to call ICE on you’: Inside Colorado schools during Trump’s second term
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DENVER — Something is evidently amiss at Lauren Kott’s 11th grade Lakewood High School English literature class. Out of the approximately 30 students enrolled in her morning class, only 9 to 14 are in attendance each day.
“It’s so quiet and sad, and people are wondering where everyone else went,” Kott said.
Last semester, before President Donald Trump returned to office for his second term and issued a number of executive orders centered around immigration, Kott said she had regular attendance rates of 25 to 30 students each class.
Lakewood High School's student body is 40% Latino — significantly higher than the rest of Jefferson County School District (26%).
While Kott is not privy to her student’s documentation status — that is not something the school’s administration shares with faculty — she believes the majority of absences in her class are due to student fears of deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The majority of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are Latino.
When President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration lifted longtime rules that restricted immigration enforcement officials from entering sensitive locations including schools, hospitals and places of worship. The new policy is part of Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations.
Public opinion on the new policy is mixed. Just over half of U.S. voters say K-12 schools should be off-limits for immigration enforcement, according to a Century Foundation/Morning Consult poll shared with Axios.
While no ICE raids have occurred in Colorado schools to date, the teachers, counselors and students Rocky Mountain PBS interviewed all spoke of decreased attendance rates, increased use of racial slurs and growing anxiety in schools.
Fear all around
In early February, ICE carried out raids in various locations around the Denver metro area, including in Aurora, Denver, Adams and Arapahoe counties. The raids reverberated in classrooms across the state.
Kott said one student asked her to mark her as absent each day, even though the student was regularly attending class.
“She wanted to learn. She wanted to get the grades,” the teacher said.
“She said she would appreciate it if I marked her absent so nobody knew she was officially registered at school.”
Kott obliged.
Kott said the classes are less-attended in the morning. She heard that some students only show up to school once their friends confirm that there is no law enforcement present.
“It’s scuttlebutt, it’s a rumor going around,” but seems to track with what she’s noticed in attendance rates, she said.
Mila Roca, a sophomore at Denver School of the Arts, said during a recent lockdown at the school, she and her peers were convinced it was an ICE raid. The lockdown turned out to be a drill.
Roca, who was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. when she was nine years old, has a green card.
“I was really scared because I never carry my ID around,” she said. “If ICE were to come to our school, I don’t know what I would do.”
Roca said some of her Latino classmates were also worried during the lockdown.
“They were scared that because they looked Hispanic, ICE would take them even if they were legal,” she said.
Emily Bochenek, a mental health professional for middle schoolers on the Front Range, said the current moment has made students question their safety and security.
“Do I have a space at this table? Am I valued as a person in this society?” Bochenek said.
“They're expected to be a good student and show up fully to class,” she said. “And it's really hard when those emotions are the current undertone.”
'Racial slurs are back in full force'
Of the almost 900,000 students enrolled in Colorado’s public schools, more than one-third are Hispanic or Latino.
Caleb Quezada, a high school chemistry teacher in Fountain, south of Colorado Springs, said as soon as the Trump administration’s immigration orders took effect, the number of snide comments targeting Hispanic and Latino students increased. He’s heard phrases like “La migra [immigration enforcement] is coming to get you,” and “You better hide.”
Quezada said many students on the receiving end of the comments try to brush them off or make jokes in response.
Quezada understands his students’ reactions. Born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., he received similar taunts as a child.
“You try to draw as little attention to it as possible to stop people from making more comments about it,” he said.
A 4th grade teacher in Colorado Springs District 11, who asked to remain anonymous for fear her school district would retaliate against her, said while one student was out sick for the week, students spread a rumor that the student’s parents were deported and that she and her sister were living alone.
“It made its way back to her and she was devastated,” the teacher said. “That’s been the scary part for me, is just hearing how kids are using [bullying and rumors] to hurt other people.”
The teacher said she is now scared herself, worried her students might spread rumors about her. She is from Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. when she was four years old.
She was recently asked to share her immigration story with the 5th grade class at her school.
“I remember telling my coworkers, ‘I kind of feel scared to share that I was born in a different country,”’ she said. “Because some of these kids and their parents — I don't know what they support.”
She ultimately shared her story with the class, she said, to show them that they can be whoever they want to be, regardless of their background or upbringing.
Kott said the rise in bullying at Lakewood High School can be traced back to Trump’s election in November. That month, she said a group of boys in the hallway yelled to a group of girls from Mexico, “go back to where you belong.”
“That is happening all the time now,” Kott said. “Racial slurs are back in full force.”
The group of kids were disciplined, but Kott said she’s never seen this level of derogatory language in her 19 years of teaching. She said she also noticed racial slurs escalating in 2016 when Trump entered his first term, but the language didn’t last long.
Kott said the number of behavioral corrections and conflict mediations the school is now having to conduct is overwhelming the dean.
“The poor guy just has his hands full,” she said.
“I don’t see how it’s not related to the administration change,” said Kott. “When you have a [presidential] administration that feels comfortable using language like that in political speeches and rallies, that's the example that's being set for students.”
Educators give mixed feedback school promises
In mid-February, Denver Public Schools became the first U.S. school district in the nation to sue the Trump administration over its policy allowing ICE agents into schools. A month later, however, a federal judge rejected the attempt and ordered the school to comply.
Each school district must create its own protocols and procedures for how to handle the new directive.
The 4th grade teacher in Colorado Springs District 11 said she feels her district is walking on eggshells.
“It’s hard to know exactly what road they’re going to take,” she said.
She said she and some other teachers have committed to locking their classroom doors if law enforcement officials show up.
“I spend every single day with these students. I’ve come to love them,” she said. “If I have to do that, then that’s what I’ll do, even if there’s a backlash.”
“I think a lot of teachers never anticipated that they would have to think through the implications of ICE showing up in schools,” said Bochenek, the mental health professional.
Kott, who works for the Jefferson County School District, said she felt her school and its principal were doing everything they could to protect their students. But she expressed disappointment in her district’s approach.
The district sent a letter out Jan. 28 that Rocky Mountain PBS reviewed. It stated, in part, “We recognize the sense of fear and anxiety that currently exists in some of our school communities ... Our legal team is prepared to ensure that federal agents produce proof of their identity, agency affiliation, and a lawful warrant. If agents visit a school, a JeffCo district administrator will support the school and meet the agency on behalf of the district with guidance from our legal team.”
Kott said the letter was a “political non-answer.”
“It did not create a sense of safety for students and families,” she said. “In fact, I would say it created more confusion and unrest than anything else.”
A mental health provider who also works for Jefferson County school district echoed Kott’s thoughts. “There’s this kind of protection in name only. There’s no guarantee that an ICE agent will stay in the principal’s office and not wander around and look for or intimidate people,” he said. The provider contracts with the Jefferson County School District and asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation for speaking out.
Ramifications of low attendance rates
There is no current public data set that shows statewide attendance rates since January of this year.
In the 2022-2023 school year, Colorado already had the fifth-highest rate of chronically absent students in the U.S., according to data collected by The Associated Press and Stanford University.
The educators Rocky Mountain PBS spoke to all said their schools have various protocols in place to check in on students that are tardy or absent with phone calls home. But many spoke of the limits of their abilities.
“It’s mostly leaving voicemails,” she said. “Every once in a blue moon, I have somebody respond to me or answer the phone.”
While many school districts offer online learning, it’s often only accessible if the student transfers out of the school they’re enrolled in and into an online learning program.
“Whether or not the parents would even know how to go about doing that is anyone's guess,” Kott said.
Kott said the impact of continual absences reflects in student behaviors in class, similar to the issues experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They just don’t understand how to be students and interact in a classroom as well,” she said. Her students are often interrupting, not raising hands and spending long periods of time in the bathroom.
The Jefferson County school district mental health contractor said some students have reached out to him seeking support but backed out after learning that the sessions are billed through insurance or Medicaid.
The Jefferson County school district mental health contractor said some students have reached out to him seeking support but backed out after learning that the sessions are billed through insurance or Medicaid.
“I think sometimes people are skeptical of signing up for government services without documentation,” he said.
Calls for hope
Amid the uncertainty and anxieties circling in schools right now, many teachers just want their students to know they are there for them — no matter what happens outside the classroom walls.
“We want to support all kids, no matter their status or their brainpower or their financial ability,” said Kott. “We just really want to help every single kid, because that's what the profession is about.”
For students and families seeking guidance on the latest immigration-related laws, explore these resources:
For students and families seeking guidance on the latest immigration-related laws, explore these resources:
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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