Fifth grade teacher in Colorado detained by ICE along with family, says school

A charter school in Douglas County, southeast of Denver, says it is scrambling to staff a 5th-grade classroom after its teacher was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents over the weekend. A staff member says the educator's abrupt absence posed "unique challenges."

The educator was in her first full year of teaching at Global Village Academy in Parker, after previously working there as a substitute, said staff, who did not provide the teacher's name.

"We are aware of the situation involving one of our teachers who, along with her family members including minor children, were detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement and transferred to an ICE detention facility in Texas over the weekend," Global Village Academy said in a statement.

After the initial publication of this story, an ICE spokesperson said the teacher is from Peru and entered the U.S. on Dec. 2, 2022, near Yuma, Arizona, where she was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. She was later released on her own recognizance.

Global Village Academy said it is in compliance with the law and that the teacher was authorized to work. Their statement further said, "While the school is not enrolled in the voluntary E-Verify program, our organization completes I-9 Employment Verification forms and inspects required employment authorization documentation for all employees, as required by federal law. We also conduct a Colorado Bureau of Investigations background check for all our school employees, including this individual. We completed both the I-9 verification process and CBI background check with this employee, as required by law. This employee has a valid employment authorization document, authorizing her lawful employment in the United States, with any U.S. employer through the spring of 2029."

Global Village Academy is a tuition-free public charter school with campuses in Aurora, Parker, and Thornton, offering language immersion for students in kindergarten to 5th grade.

The school is one of about a dozen plaintiffs suing the Trump Administration, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Department of State, in a federal lawsuit filed out of California earlier this month over proposed changes to the H1-B visa process.

The suit says a proposed fee increase for the visa to $100,000 per year is "exorbitant," "unprecedented," and "unjustified."

"The $100,000 Requirement would significantly hinder GVAC's ability to recruit new and qualified teachers for the upcoming academic year, particularly given the challenging teacher recruitment market and the need for world language teachers with both native-language skills and cultural competencies to achieve their mission," a portion of the suit reads.

ICE's statement is as follows, with the teacher's name redacted to protect the identity of her children:

[She] "is an illegal alien from Peru who entered the country Dec. 2, 2022 near Yuma, Arizona and was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. She was subsequently paroled and released on her own recognizance.

[She] was taken into ICE Denver custody on Oct. 24, 2025. She will be held in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is executing its mission of identifying and removing criminal aliens and others who have violated our nation's immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality."