The Denver Gazette article, “DPS Links Absences to ICE Raids, but the Data Isn’t Clear,” spins a hazy narrative about immigration enforcement supposedly causing a spike in student absences at Denver Public Schools. DPS officials and activists tried to draw a direct line between rumored ICE activity and classroom attendance. There was even a school board resolution blaming “Trump-era immigration policies” for the chill in attendance. But here’s the kicker: the actual data doesn’t back any of it up. Attendance was already down before the supposed ICE sightings, and it continued to decline afterward at basically the same rate. One featured student whines that “everyone deserves the American dream.” But the story conveniently skips over the part where entering a country illegally is not how dreams are earned—it is how borders are broken.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Blame Trump First, Check Facts Later
DPS officials scrambled to connect poor attendance to ICE activity and Trump immigration policies, but their own numbers don’t support the claim. - Attendance Was Already in Freefall
DPS’s attendance was in the toilet before ICE was allegedly spotted, and it kept dropping afterward at the same rate. So either ICE has time travel tech, or the data ain’t cooperating. - “The American Dream” Is Not a Handout
A featured student laments that “everyone deserves the American dream,” but forgets the first part of that dream—you earn it. You don’t trespass your way into it. - DPS Uses Kids as Political Props
Instead of fixing chronic absenteeism and tanking test scores, DPS finds time to pass performative resolutions about federal immigration policy. Priorities, right? - Another Chapter in the Book of Woke
Denver’s school system, bleeding students and drowning in mediocrity, is more focused on federal optics than actually teaching kids how to read.
My Bottom Line
The American dream is not a universal entitlement. It is a promise for those who respect the rule of law, not a participation trophy for anyone who sneaks across a border and signs up for benefits. The narrative that ICE is terrifying families into hiding might make for good headlines, but the numbers tell a boring truth—attendance was already circling the drain. Denver Public Schools would rather torch facts and blame Trump than face its own failings. You know what scares parents? Failing schools. Drug crime near campuses. Teachers more focused on activism than academics. You want the American dream? Great. Knock. Apply. Earn it. But don’t gaslight the public into thinking enforcement of immigration law is the problem when your system was collapsing under its own weight long before ICE showed up.
