Students at U. Minnesota Demand Sanctuary Campus and End to Deportations

Students at U. Minnesota Demand Sanctuary Campus and End to Deportations

Do these students even realize that they’re out of step with the majority of people in the country?

Fight Back News reports:

University of Minnesota students demand no deportations, sanctuary campus

130 U of MN Twin Cities students and supporters gathered outside of the Student Union in the windy, freezing weather on Thursday, February 6, to demand safety for all immigrant and international students on campus.

Shortly after the university announced they plan to comply with ICE orders on campus, UMN SDS announced an emergency rally and march to call for a “Sanctuary Campus” where undocumented students and faculty are protected from the threat of deportation from federal authorities. This message was echoed throughout the various speeches and on signs in the crowd, including, “School is for education, nor deportation” and “My dreams are bigger than your walls.”

After initial chants of “Up, up with liberation; down, down with deportations” rang through the crowd, the first speaker kicked off the protest by repeatedly reminding everyone that “all persons in the United States have Constitutional protections.”

Dr. Montes of the University of Minnesota’s Chicano Studies Department emphasized that students should create a safety plan by sharing emergency contacts with friends and loved ones, as well making sure to understand they have the right to remain silent. If an ICE officer or other official does not have a warrant signed by a judge, people do not have to answer questions or go with them.

After a few more speakers continued to carry on the messages that immigrants belong in the U.S. and on Minnesota campuses, the group walked down Washington Avenue behind banners that read “Stop the deportations; sanctuary campus now” and “Students against the racist reactionary Republican agenda.”

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