Denver Public Schools is waging legal war against a figment of its imagination.

The school district has requested a temporary restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement — claiming to protect students from classroom raids and reinstate safeguards supposedly stripped by the Trump administration. But court filings reveal the purported protections DPS is fighting to “restore” never existed in the first place.

Since 1993, immigration authorities have maintained operational guidance for “protected areas” like schools. In 2021, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued guidance stating enforcement shouldn’t occur in protected areas to “the fullest extent possible” if they might obstruct other individuals from accessing the areas. While this Biden-era guidance severely restricted when ICE could operate in practice, it never formally created the sanctuary zones DPS envisions.

“The policy was never really about keeping ICE out of schools,” explained John Fabbricatore, former Denver ICE field director. “It was about keeping ICE out of neighborhoods that schools are in.”

As I’ve written previously, the district isn’t really shielding students from classroom raids that aren’t happening. They’re trying to block immigration enforcement throughout entire neighborhoods under the guise of student safety — even as federal agents pursue dangerous criminals linked to organizations like Tren de Aragua.

DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero has alarmed some families by declaring that, under two 2025 Trump administration memos, “schools are no longer protected areas,” and federal agents operate with “no meaningful oversight… near, around, or on school premises.”

Except none of that is true.

The 2021 Mayorkas guidance never actually prohibited enforcement near schools. Contrary to DPS’s narrative, Biden’s policy permitted ICE operations in protected areas with “exigent circumstances” or “prior approval from their Agency’s headquarters.” It listed ready-made justifications and clarified that the guidance created zero “enforceable rights” under the law.

Little has substantively changed under Trump, though. Schools are still considered protected areas, but instead of forcing field directors to beg distant bureaucrats for permission, local ICE supervisors are finally trusted to apply “discretion and common sense” to case-by-case decisions.

Cutting this red tape matters tremendously. While Biden’s policy permitted enforcement with exigent circumstances or high-level approvals, Fabbricatore recalls how “nearly impossible” it was to get signoffs. “I had numerous cases denied because they were ‘too close’ to a protected area,” he lamented, describing severe impacts and frequent clashes with a risk-averse ICE headquarters.

Biden-era restrictions rendered entire neighborhoods off-limits, obstructing ICE from operating anywhere within “linear sight” of schools, parks, churches, medical facilities and daycares. Agents often couldn’t conduct rolling surveillance near sensitive locations — making it nearly impossible to monitor and tail dangerous targets without losing them when they entered these areas.

“If DPS gets its way, it will cripple operations,” Fabbricatore warned. “217 schools plus bus stops and anywhere ‘near’ a school would shut ICE down because these locations are all over the city.”

Here’s the reality: These guidance documents are internal management tools directing how officers should exercise discretion — not legally binding rules with enforceable protections. Yet DPS’s lawsuit asks the court to enforce documents that have long made clear, from administration to administration: “This doesn’t create anything you can enforce in court.”

DPS isn’t fighting to restore past protections. They’re demanding that Judge Daniel Domenico — a thoughtful, experienced jurist and Trump appointee — craft brand-new, categorical prohibitions on immigration enforcement that haven’t existed before.

The critical difference between the Biden and Trump administrations on this issue isn’t policy — it’s enforcement. Biden stonewalled operations while ostensibly allowing them. Now, Trump means business. That’s what DPS truly fears — and why they want to stop enforcement before it begins.

The district claims lower attendance threatens its “stability” since funding depends on enrollment. In fact, enrollment dropped “only” 1.8% over five years — because it was mitigated by an influx of 4,700 undocumented students. Marrero insists attendance declines are “noticeable” but has introduced zero proof. Perhaps that’s because hard numbers would expose how much DPS depends on illegal immigration to pad enrollment and protect budgets — even as academic failures drive away citizens and legal residents.

The district can’t identify a single ICE enforcement action at a school or bus stop in Denver or anywhere else… because there are none. So, they stoke panic while false alarms about raids fuel the same fear they claim to be fighting.

Let’s be honest: If DPS truly cared about protecting students from trauma, they wouldn’t promote false narratives making kids think they’ll be snatched from classrooms — while admitting ICE isn’t even in schools.

As Homeland Security essentially argues, the district isn’t fighting real enforcement; it’s battling the idea of it — relying on apprehension, misunderstanding and “indirect inference.” But you can’t sue over a “chilling effect” caused by your own misinformation.

In truth, DPS has stoked the very fear they’re now exploiting. This lawsuit doesn’t expose harm; it manufactures it. Fear is the strategy, the courts are the tactic — and virtue-signaling administrators are desperately trying to make their mirage appear substantial enough for a federal judge to shape it into reality.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.