America’s next generation of community organizers has launched a new campaign to turn college campuses into safe spaces for illegal immigrants not unlike the model of sanctuary cities.
CNN reports:
‘Sanctuary campus’ protests target Trump immigration policiesCollege campuses have become new battlegrounds over immigration as student protests pick up around the US in the wake of last week’s presidential election.At universities across the country, students were walking out Wednesday.Their aim: Pressuring officials to make their school a “sanctuary campus” that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities.The protests came a week after the election of Donald Trump, who’s said that deporting millions of undocumented immigrants will be a top priority once he takes office.What’s a sanctuary campus?That depends who you ask. Petitions have been circulating at a number of schools over the past few days. Some ask universities to declare their support for undocumented students publicly. Others ask for more specific measures, such as guarantees that the school won’t release information on students’ immigration status and that university police forces won’t team up with the feds in deportation raids.”Different campuses are doing different things,” said Vera Parra, an organizer with Cosecha Movement. “Actions are not necessarily directed at school administration, but about supporting undocumented students on campuses and their fears about what can happen to them and their families under a Donald Trump administration.”
Here are a few examples via Twitter:
Tufts students are on board. WCVB News reports:
Students rally to make Tufts University a sanctuary campusDozens of students are calling on administrators at Tufts University to make their school a sanctuary campus a week after Donald Trump won the election.Students rallied on campus Wednesday pushing their campus to become a safe haven for undocumented students, where they can feel at home and attend classes without fear.The stakes couldn’t be higher for one of those students, who came to the United States 12 years ago.“Being an undocumented immigrant, I fear deportation, but I will not accept that,” Diego Espinoza Rodriguez said. “I’ve lived here my entire life. I don’t know Mexico. I am from the United States. If my own country rejects me, it’s not right.”
Same thing at Stanford. The San Francisco Gate reports:
Hundreds walk out of Stanford classes, demand ‘sanctuary campus’More than 500 Stanford University students, faculty and staff members walked out of classrooms and ducked out of jobs Tuesday in a protest of the policies of Donald Trump, the latest in a wave of Bay Area and national demonstrations against the president-elect.Some of the Stanford dissidents, though, came with a concrete demand for the university’s administrators: investigating the possibility of the Peninsula campus serving as a sanctuary against the sort of millions of deportations Trump has said he’ll seek as president.Hundreds of people — students, faculty, staff and other supporters — had as of Tuesday evening signed an open letter addressed to President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost John Etchemendy urging the two leaders to “immediately develop a protocol for making itself a sanctuary campus.”
Oberlin College, of course. Cleveland.com reports:
Oberlin College asked to become ‘sanctuary campus’ to protect immigrantsOfficials at Oberlin College and other schools across the country are being asked by faculty, staff and students to create “sanctuary campuses” and limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.More than two dozen petitions calling on university administrations to take steps to make their institutions “sanctuary campuses” have been circulated since Donald Trump was elected president, Inside Higher Ed reported.The petitions want colleges to refuse to release information on the immigration status of students and others in the community and reject deportation or raids.
And Rutgers University. NJ.com reports:
Rutgers: We will protect undocumented immigrants on campusHours after students and faculty members circulated a petition to make Rutgers a “sanctuary campus,” President Robert Barchi said the school will protect the privacy of undocumented immigrants attending the university.Barchi released a statement Tuesday after many students raised concerns about their privacy and safety following the election of Donald Trump. The university president also said he expects those associated with Rutgers to protect the privacy and confidentiality of students and that information will not be provided unless it’s required by law or a court order.“Rutgers police do not inquire into nor record the immigration status of students or other persons unless a serious crime has been committed,” Barchi said. “Rutgers University does not use E-verify for any purposes other than to comply with longstanding federal law regarding employment eligibility. Immigration status is not a factor in student housing decisions.”
Here’s a video report on Rutgers from NJTV:
Featured image via YouTube.
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