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Students attending class are no longer protected from ICE. Eagle County schools are taking steps to protect them.

The Eagle County School District's plan is to focus on educating students, while staff are instructed to direct ICE agents to the district office if seen on campuses

As of this week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are permitted to conduct interviews, surveillance, searches and arrests at schools. The Eagle County School District has a contingency plan for if agents come to its schools.
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily archive

On Tuesday, the Trump administration program known as the . Now, immigrant students and families can be interviewed, searched, surveilled and even arrested .

Initially approved in 2011, and reissued by the Biden administration in 2021, the “sensitive locations” policy prevented Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting interviews, arrests, searches and surveillance of suspected migrants in places such as schools, hospitals, places of worship and public demonstration sites. Last week, the Trump administration revoked this policy.

Across Colorado, public school districts, particularly those with high immigrant and migrant student populations, have been taking a look at what they can do to protect their students from ICE raids.



There has been no word from the Colorado Department of Education on what schools should do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up on their campuses, leaving school districts to determine their own policies. Some districts, , issued to their staff that included barring ICE agents from entering campuses and using schools’ intercom systems to communicate.

The Eagle County School District, which does not record the immigration status of any of its students, has its own plan.

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Eagle County School District Superintendent Phil Qualman and Chief Communications Officer Matt Miano submitted a joint response to the Vail Daily commenting on the district’s plans following the elimination of the “sensitive spaces” policy.

The district plans to “continue to focus on educating our students and supporting them where we are able,” they wrote. “Our top priority is always providing a safe learning environment for our students.”

The district administration has shared protocols with teachers and staff “on what to do should an ICE agent show up at our schools along with various resources our staff can draw from,” Qualman and Miano wrote.

If ICE agents arrive at any of the district’s campuses, staff have been directed to alert their principals and send the agents to the district office. At the office, “we would ask them to provide their judicial warrant and share that with our attorneys to review and advise,” Qualman and Miano wrote.

Colorado Mountain College also plans to keep ICE agents out of its classrooms and away from student and employee data.

The school, which has campuses throughout the Western Slope, submitted a statement to Vail Daily that read: “Barring any new laws passed by Congress to the contrary, CMC will not release confidential student or employee information or allow agents of external agencies who are inquiring about legal status into our classrooms or buildings without a judicial warrant, subpoena, court order, or as otherwise required by law.”

Qualman and Miano said that at the administrative level, the Eagle County School District had not yet heard concerns from families about the safety of schools following the revoking of the “sensitive locations” policy, though they acknowledged it was possible the narrative was different at the school level. As of Wednesday afternoon, no district families had pulled their students out of school in relation to the policy change.

Classes will continue as usual at Eagle County schools, with a focus on maintaining high-quality education for all students.

“We are committed to educating our youth and encourage all families to know their rights surrounding immigration law. We consider our schools to be safe spaces and will continue to do what we can to ensure that is the case,” Qualman and Miano wrote.

While the district has not issued any communications directly to families, Qualman and Miano advised families to be aware of the many nonprofit organizations in Eagle County that offer support to the local immigrant community.

“Organizations like ,Ìý ,Ìý,Ìýand more … are at the ready to provide guidance and support to those in need,” they wrote. “They have put together  available to everyone and we encourage people to seek them out as needed.”

The Vail Daily has reached out to Denver Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for comment but has not yet received a response.


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