“Stay on our necks”: DPS board adopts immigration policy proposed by activist coalition

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice

With her clenched fist raised high in the air and a call of, “Si se puede,” Denver Public School Board of Education President Xóchitl Gaytán smiled as she requested the DPS board’s vote to adopt a policy amendment to limit the district’s interaction with federal immigration agencies.

Screenshot of Denver Public Schools Board of Education President Xóchitl Gaytán during April 23 board meeting.

The policy change came at the request of a nationwide coalition of over 40 nonprofit activist organizations, many of which are connected with anti-Israel protests, Colorado’s anti-ICE protests, and the broader Marxist-Leninist global communist movement. Coalition members are financed byOpen Society Foundation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Education Association, the Tides Foundation, and the Colorado Health Foundation. U.S. Senate candidate and former Democratic Socialists of America member Julie Gonzales was the only elected official included in the coalition.

At the coalition’s request, the DPS board curtailed its standard policy approval process to expedite its unanimous approval of the coalition’s amendment to the district’s Executive Limitation Policy 10 (EL 10), “Student Conduct, Discipline & Attendance” on April 23. The approval came after months of coordination between the activist coalition and DPS Board President Gaytán.

DPS board partners with paid activists on immigration policy

The coalition was led by Movimiento Poder, a Colorado-based nonprofit funded by the multimillion dollar Colorado Health Foundation which has influenced DPS policy for decades.

On February 13, Movimiento Poder submitted a proposed addition to DPS’s EL 10 titled “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)” and urged the board to urgently adopt it. The proposed policy created limits on the district’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, including denying ICE access to school property, records, or students, refusing ICE detainer requests or voluntary disclosure of immigration status information, supporting DACA staff with legal resources, and barring SROs from sharing data with immigration officers which could place students or their families at risk of deportation.

Portion of a letter received by RMV through an open records request.  Signers of a letter to the Denver Public Schools Board of Education requesting adoption of limits on the district’s interaction with federal immigration agencies.

The policy adoption letter was co-signed by local and national organizations active in the anti-law enforcement, anti-Israel, and communist protest nexus, including organizations such as Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJA).

Public records show that Gaytán, who stated during an October board meeting that she lives with internalized oppression resulting from having to live up to “standards of whiteness,” coordinated directly with the coalition to facilitate the board’s adoption of the group’s proposed policy through a series of meetings and emails.

During the DPS board’s March 5 Work Session, Gaytán stated, “So I met with the coalition…And so of course I wanted to support these…immigrant rights groups in submitting their version (of the DPS policy) …” Later in the meeting, Gaytán openly acknowledged her work with the coalition when she said, “…it’s important to me to go back to community since this was…introduced by community and I recognize that it was done through me.”

Gaytán also highlighted the coalition’s desire for the board to suspend its traditional policy approval process to urgently adopt their policy proposal, stating, “…what the community groups are asking is that there is a process where we could…vote something into…a final vote by suspending the rules.”

The board fulfilled the coalition’s change request on April 23, when the board approved the suspension of the normal policy review process and unanimously approved the activist coalition’s policy addition. 

The alliance between the DPS board and the activist coalition was made clear in the board members’ comments preceding the final vote.  Director Kimberlee Sia stated, “I just wanted to thank…Movimiento Poder…you all have been really collaborative with…us about this…and you’ve pushed us really hard to get this done…”  She added, “It’s our job as a board to show how much we care about our immigrant community.” 

DPS Board Director DJ Torres referenced personally meeting with Movimiento Poder and recognized them as paid activists, stating, “I had a very great conversation with my colleagues at Movimiento Poder…,” during which he said he told them, “It’s your job to stay on our necks.  It’s literally your job…You’re getting paid and have people invested in you all to do this work…”  

Movimiento Poder’s publicly available 2024 IRS form 990 shows an expense of nearly $700,000 in employee salaries and benefits, along with nearly $40,000 in lobbying expenses.

Screenshot of Denver Public Schools Board of Education Director DJ Torres during April 23 board meeting.

This was not the first time Movimiento Poder influenced DPS policy.

Movimiento Poder pressure added Restorative Justice and removed SROs

Movimiento Poder (“Movement Power”) was originally founded in 1991 as Padres y Jovenes Unidos (PJU) by United Farm Workers-associated labor union organizer Ricardo Martinez and has a long history of influencing DPS.Movimiento Poder worked with powerful national organizations such as Advancement Project and the NEA to embed Restorative Justice into DPS policies, which was later credited with inspiring national reform and influencing the Obama Administration’s January 2014 student discipline guidance.

Cover page of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos (PJU) and Advancement Project’s School-to-Prison Pipeline report, accessed from the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s website and the cover page of the Denver School-Based Restorative Practices Partnership Implementation Guide, accessed from NEA.org.

In 2020, Movimiento Poder pressured the DPS board to pass a “Police Free Schools resolution” which led to the board’s 2021 approval to remove all school resource officers from DPS schools.

Screenshot from a Padres & Jovenes Unidos (Movimiento Poder) campaign page highlighting efforts to remove police from Denver Public Schools.

Movimiento Poder’s national allies seek to transform America

Movimiento Poder partners with three national nonprofits-Advancement Project,Alliance for Educational Justice, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance-all of which signed the coalition’s letter to DPS.  The three organizations are openly committed to politically and culturally transforming the United States.

Advancement Project, which calls Movimiento Poder a “Partner & Ally,” is supported by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NEA, Open Society, and the Tides Foundation and advocates for replacing the U.S. Constitutional system with, “…a democracy where every person can vote freely…where voting is just one part of a meaningful way to participate in public life…a country where no one is criminalized for where they come from…”

Screenshots from Advancement Project’s website.

Advancement Project and AEJ, another Movimiento Poder partner organization, lead the Police Free Schools initiative.  AEJ’s mission is to use education to “activate collective power” to facilitate the transformation of America’s current political and cultural systems. The DPS policy advocacy coalition included several AEJ-associated organizations: Brighton Park Neighborhood, Californians for Justice, Youth Together, Make the Road NY, and the Philly Student Union. 

The DPS policy coalition also includes Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, a collection of U.S. nonprofits which promote transformative social justice movements around the world. GGJA, whose slogan is, “Many Struggles, One Movement,” lists Movimiento Poder as a member organization.

Screenshots from Grassroots Global Justice Alliance website and social media.

GGJA advocates for defunding the U.S. military and the police and has partnered with Chinese Communist Party-aligned Code Pink. 

In 2023, GGJA was one of four organizations that led an anti-Israel protest in the U.S. Capitol rotunda — which Fox News reported ended in about 60 arrests for illegally demonstrating inside the building. Other participating organizations included the Adalah Justice Project (investigated by Congress for bankrolling and supporting anti-Israel protests on college campuses), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Samidoun (designated by the federal government as an international terrorist organization fundraiser), and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Screenshots from Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s X account, and from Fox News and peopledemand.org related to an illegal protest in the U.S. Capitol rotunda on December 19, 2023. 

Colorado coalition is anti-capitalist and anti-ICE

Movimiento Poder is also tightly networked across Colorado and is an active member of the Colorado Rapid Response Network, which coordinates anti-ICE activity across the state.  The activist policy coalition included fellow CORRN members: the American Friends Service Committee, Mi Familia Vota, and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

The DPS board partner coalition also included the Marxist-Leninist communist Denver PSL, an organization dedicated to destroying U.S. capitalism. 

In June 2025, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into PSL’s funding, requesting records on what it described as the group’s financial ties to Neville Singham — a China-based American billionaire the committee is investigating for possible Chinese Communist Party-linked influence operations and potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. 

The policy coalition is not the first time DPS has engaged with PSL. In 2025, Denver PSL and Movimiento Poder hosted an “Immigrant Workshop” for DPS students, and earlier this year, PSL participated with DPS students in an anti-ICE walkout protest.

Earlier this month, PSL participated with United Denver—a coalition of activist organizations and unions including Movimiento Poder, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, and the Colorado Educators Association—in May Day “Workers Over Billionaires” protests across Colorado.

Screenshots from United Denver’s Instagram demonstrating the membership of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Movimiento Poder, as well as United Denver’s partnership with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in a May 1, 2026 protest rally.

Coalition connections with Senator Julie Gonzales

State Senator representing most of Denver from District 34, former DSA member, and candidate for U.S. Senate Julie Gonzales was the sole state legislator to sign the DPS policy advocacy letter. Gonzales formerly worked for Movimiento Poder and assisted them in advocating for educational and social reforms. Since being elected to Colorado’s Senate, Gonzales has promoted legislation aligned with Movimiento Poder’s anti-ICE position. Gonzales has labeled businesses that work with ICE as “enemies to our communities” and joined several DPS coalition members in protesting against Palantir.

Screenshot from Movimiento Poder’s Instagram depicting state senator and former Movimiento Poder employee Julie Gonzales with the organization’s former executive director Elsa Bañuelos.

Don’t Stop: DPS board encourages coalition to continue

Movimiento Poder and its coalition of organizations dedicated to transforming the U.S. Constitutional order, abolishing the military, the police and ICE, partnered with the DPS school board to successfully approve an amendment to EL 10, limiting the district’s interactions with federal immigration officials.

The DPS board encouraged Movimiento Poder to continue influencing Colorado’s largest school district. 

Prior to his vote for approval of the coalition’s policy proposal on April 23, DPS Director Torres instructed Movimiento Poder, “Don’t stop. You need to keep on us and every organization that you have partnerships with because this is how change gets done…and we’ll have public…displays, and then maybe we’ll have more private ones, too…But don’t stop. This is very, very good work.”