US Students Demand 'Sanctuary Campuses' for Undocumented Peers

Students from dozens of universities across the U.S. are demanding their schools make their campuses safe for undocumented students and open up to more undocumented immigrants, with uncertainty and fears over what a Donald Trump presidency could have in store.

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Letters and petitions to university provosts, many drafted collectively either by student groups or faculty, point out that about 750,000 DACA and DAPA holding students are set to lose financial aid and work permits — granted by executive action — as soon as January, when Trump assumes office. Universities might also be forced to cede personal information on these students to help the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, conduct raids and try to deport the students.

Solutions vary from creating a “sanctuary campus,” which would allow schools to deny ICE information, to coming up with substitutes for DACA and DAPA like financial aid not tied to federal money and stipends for work should students lose their work permits.

The demands have come from schools as small as Hampshire and Oberlin College and as big as University of Massachusetts, as well as about half of the Ivy Leagues. Those with petitions already have several thousand signatures each. Other public universities that have larger numbers of immigrant students, like the University of California and the University of Michigan, started campaigning for sanctuary campuses before the election results came out.

While the University of California system is led by Janet Napolitano, who led Homeland Security as it deported record numbers of undocumented immigrants, several of its campuses already have protections for undocumented students, from designated financial aid to free legal services.

None of the universities or colleges have yet to convert to sanctuary campuses, but given that funding might be rescinded from sanctuary cities — which operates under the same logic — converting campuses might be one of the last fronts open to undocumented organizers.