One week after a sweeping immigration enforcement operation disrupted schools throughout the area, Denver Public Schools on Wednesday sued the Trump administration in federal court, alleging “irreparable harm” from the repeal of a policy that put schools, churches and other sensitive locations off-limits for raids.

“For decades, DPS, its students, and their families have relied on this Protected Areas Policy to provide education and services for their students,” says the district’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against the Department of Homeland Security.

That policy was rescinded by new DHS leadership hours after President Donald Trump took office for the second time last month, as part of an aggressive anti-immigration program under which the new administration plans to revoke legal protections for many immigrants and deport more than 10 million people in the country without authorization. On Feb. 5, hundreds of federal law enforcement agents detained people across the Denver metro area in an operation that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of DHS, said was targeting violent criminals and transnational gang members.

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Since then, ICE and other federal agencies have refused to answer questions about the number of suspected gang members taken into custody, but Fox News reported that just one gang member was detained among roughly 30 other arrests. Residents in several apartment buildings targeted in the raids reported being visited door-to-door by federal agents who asked for their papers.

While no arrests were made on DPS school grounds, an hours-long operation at one apartment complex blocked a nearby bus stop. District officials said in their lawsuit that they scrambled to “address the possibility that students in the area of the apartment raid would return from school to find their parent(s) or guardian(s) had been removed by federal agents,” including by stationing personnel at 15 bus stops in the area.

Echoing school officials in nearby Aurora, a city that Trump has singled out for immigration enforcement, the DPS lawsuit states that attendance has “decreased noticeably across all DPS schools, particularly those schools in areas with new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred.”

“DPS has been forced to divert resources from its educational mission to prepare for immigration arrests on DPS school grounds,” says the lawsuit. “DPS has therefore spent significant time and resources implementing policies ensuring student safety and training staff and faculty to effectively respond to encounters with individuals claiming to be conducting immigration enforcement activities on school grounds.”

In response to an inquiry, a DHS spokesperson said that the new directive “gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”

“We are protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the previous administration,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary of public affairs for DHS.

The district’s lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order barring DHS from “implementing, enforcing, or acting pursuant to” the new policy on protected areas. In a statement Wednesday, DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero said that the district was acting to ensure that schools can remain a safe place for all students and their families, regardless of their immigration status.

“While DPS may be the first public school district to file a TRO, I encourage other districts nationwide to exercise their power and take action toward protecting their students,” Marrero said.

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