Archuleta School District (ASD) is joining others from around the state and nation in preparing for new federal immigration policies.
Addressing board members on Jan. 14, ASD Superintendent Rick Holt cited requests from community members and staff that the school district prepare for the “unlikely event that there are deportations of undocumented students and families.”
“We’ve begun to prepare for what that might look like,” Holt said.
The preparations came in response to campaign pledges made by Donald Trump who vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and who since taking office Monday has taken actions relating to immigration and ending birthright citizenship.
Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova, anticipating those efforts, outlined guidance and recommendations for school districts in a December 2024 letter to superintendents, writing, “Under long-standing federal guidance … schools are protected spaces where federal immigration authorities should not conduct immigration activities.”
In the letter, she points out a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming that schools cannot deny enrollment to students on the basis of their immigration status.
Reached for comment via email Tuesday, Holt declined to provide further details about what ASD’s response might look like, writing that more feedback is still needed and that plans are still in draft form.
Speaking more broadly during the Jan. 14 meeting, he said, “We’re learning from some folks that experienced [deportations] a number of years ago, and what that was like for school districts to all of a sudden have kids at the end of the day whose parents weren’t around, and not really [having] a safety net built for how to deal with that.”
According to a July 2024 study published by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, there were roughly 156,000 undocumented immigrants estimated to be living in Colorado. How many of those are enrolled in local schools remains unclear.
“We don’t have, to the best of our knowledge, a large undocumented population,” Holt said, adding that ASD is working with local organizations to develop protocols in the event that local students are directly impacted by future immigration enforcements.
Fleshing out a plan, he suggested, would stand to benefit the greater ASD community, calling it “our responsibility for the safety of all students and families in our district, regardless of their documented status.”
The school board could revisit the issue as soon as its February meeting, though an agenda has not yet been finalized.
garrett@pagosasun.com
