DENVER (KDVR) — A woman who taught at a charter school in Parker, Colorado, was removed to Peru on Thursday, immigration officials confirmed with NewsNation affiliate KDVR on Sunday.
Global Village Academy Douglas County shared in late October that one of its teachers, along with her family, had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and transferred into a Texas ICE detention facility.
ICE said that 43-year-old Marina Ortiz-Abollaneda, of Peru, had entered the U.S. near Yuma, Arizona, on Dec. 2, 2022, and was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers. After that, Ortiz-Abollaneda was paroled and released on her own recognizance.
“Ortiz-Abollaneda was taken into ICE Denver custody on Oct. 24 and transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center on Oct. 25 to continue her immigration proceedings,” an ICE spokesperson said. “On Nov. 5, Ortiz-Abollaneda requested, and an immigration judge granted her, voluntary departure. On Nov.13, Ortiz-Abollaneda was removed to Peru.”
Ortiz-Abollaneda was a fifth-grade Spanish language immersion and social studies teacher at the charter school, and her name remains listed as a teacher at the school online. Ortiz-Abollaneda and her family had gone in for a regular check-in with immigration authorities when the family was arrested. The Dilley Immigration Processing Center is used for families in immigration detention, according to ICE.
The school noted in its October statements that it is not enrolled in the voluntary E-Verify program, which is a web-based system run by the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that electronically compares records to determine employment eligibility.
Instead, the school said it completes I-9 Employment Verification forms and inspects the required employment authorization documentation for all employees as required by federal law. School officials told KDVR that she had everything needed to work in the U.S. legally, and that the school was working to see what it could do to bring her home.
“We also conduct a Colorado Bureau of Investigations background check for all our school employees, including this individual,” the principal wrote. “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.”
The school also wrote to parents that it was working closely with its legal team and outside immigration attorneys to understand “if and how we might be able to help facilitate their return to Colorado.”
No public-facing statement was posted to the school’s website or social media pages as of Sunday.