Immigration authorities detained a Parker teacher and her family during a routine check-in late last week despite the educator having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, according to school officials.
Marina Ortiz, who teaches fifth grade at Global Village Academy, was arrested Friday during an appointment at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Centennial, the charter school’s principal wrote in a letter to parents Monday. Her family was also detained, and they were all sent to a detention center in Texas.
Ortiz and her family had legal authorization to live and work in the United States, according to a statement from Michael Henderson, the executive director of the Global Village Academy Collaborative in Douglas County. Ortiz “has a valid employment authorization document, authorizing her lawful employment in the United States, with any U.S. employer through the spring of 2029,” he wrote.
“We are currently working closely with our legal team and outside immigration attorneys to understand if and how we might be able to help facilitate their return to Colorado,” the school’s principal, Stacy Bush, wrote to parents.
The school and its parent organization declined an interview request. Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for Denver’s ICE field office, did not immediately return a request for comment, nor did a representative for ICE’s regional office.
In a separate statement posted online Tuesday, Douglas County school board member Susan Meek said she was “deeply shocked and profoundly saddened” about the reports of Ortiz’s arrest. She wrote that though the arrest didn’t happen on district property, “the fear and uncertainty it creates reach deeply into our classrooms, workplaces and neighborhoods.”
“We are a nation built on the idea that immigrants play a vital role in our society — enriching our schools, workplaces, communities, and collective future,” Meek wrote. “The values of fairness, dignity, respect, and inclusion are undermined when an individual who abides by the rules and shows up ready to serve is treated in this way.”
Meek declined an interview request but said she was seeking to call an emergency school board meeting so that the leaders of the district, which includes Global Village Academy’s Parker school, could be fully briefed.
School district spokeswoman Paula Hans referred comment to the school.
A GoFundMe fundraiser in support of Ortiz and her family had raised more than $7,100 as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Ortiz’s arrest prompted concerns mirroring those raised by immigrant-rights advocates earlier last month, when a number of immigrants without proper legal status received instructions to attend new check-in appointments at the Centennial office. Advocates then turned up at the facility and picketed outside, urging people to reschedule their appointments.
In September, one advocate told The Denver Post that four people who entered the office were detained, including an elderly Cuban man with dementia.
The news of the detention of the teacher’s family spread as protests erupted in Durango over the Monday detention of a father and his two adolescent children. According to social media posts by the Compañeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center, the family members were arrested on their way to school.
Videos posted by the group and by the Colorado Rapid Response Network show a crowd outside an ICE field office in Durango on Monday night and again Tuesday morning, blowing whistles and projecting slogans onto the building.
The family members were all in the process of applying for aslyum, according to the advocacy groups.
One video posted by the Compañeros group appeared to show a masked law enforcement agent grab a phone from a protester and then throw it. The officer then grabbed the woman, who had white hair and appeared to be older, and throw her to the ground. Other protesters demanded that the man identity himself, and several chanted “Shame!”
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