Students, faculty call for action to protect college campuses from ICE

Heciel Nieves Bonilla, Assistant News Editor

Students, faculty and human rights groups are calling for VCU and other universities to protect  students from profiling and detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they expand raid operations nationwide.

Efforts include a student petition for VCUarts to outline its safety policy and a statewide proposal to reestablish campuses as protected “sanctuary” zones posed by faculty unions and the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights.

The efforts come as candidates for statewide office show broad support for local cooperation with ICE. Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, as well as lieutenant governor — and gubernatorial candidate — Winsome Earle-Sears have both previously opposed efforts to make Virginia a “sanctuary state,” meaning they will not cooperate with federal agencies on immigration enforcement.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger said in last week’s debate that she also opposed “providing any sort of sanctuary policies here,” according to a previous report by The Commonwealth Times.

Alyse Few, a second-year graphic design major, is one of the students circulating a petition in the School of the Arts asking the university to address student detainment fears. The petition calls for classes to switch from in-person to virtual instruction when students feel unsafe on campus because of ICE threats.

“There have been several accounts made by students of ICE being spotted on or near the VCU campus, even from last semester,” Few said. “I’ve heard students, [myself] included, express their fears, worries and anger over ICE being on campus knowing how they have presented themselves over the last year. Some students have even avoided going to class out of fear.”

The biggest risk to students is walking to and from class, Few said. She believes there should be a transparent way to communicate with students about the presence of immigration enforcement that does not rely on hearsay. She suggested a system that operates similarly to VCUAlerts.

“No one should have to live in fear whenever they leave their home, class, clubs or any other location because of how they look or how they speak, especially at a school,” Few said.

Immigration operations have changed nationally since January as well as rules regulating agents’ behavior, according to NPR. Schools have not been a “protected area” from immigration enforcement since Jan. 20, when the Trump administration rescinded the previous policy protecting them, according to the National Immigration Law Center. 

However, ICE cannot enter private homes, including dorms, without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, according to the National Immigrant Justice Center. The NIJC website shows viewers what a judicial warrant looks like, along with an administrative warrant — a more common form of permission not signed by a judge that does not carry the same power. 

The Sacred Heart Center, a local nonprofit, operates a resource page with information for the community regarding immigration enforcement, including Virginia-specific examples of these forms.

Nearly 1,200 international students attend VCU, according to the Office of Admissions. Last semester, two students and one alum were among thousands nationwide to have their visas revoked, according to previous reporting by The CT. The three VCU students later had their visas restored.

VCU assistant professor of sociology Gabriela León-Pérez thinks there is a “heightened sense of fear and anxiety” surrounding ICE’s presence on campus. She thinks many faculty members have responded to the possibility of ICE entering classrooms by developing plans with their students. 

“Other universities, such as Columbia University and the University of Michigan, have developed protocols for potential visits by ICE to campus, and it would be a good idea for VCU to develop similar guidelines for our campus community,” León-Pérez said. 

Community organizer and former Virginia Tech professor Jack Leff recently collaborated with VCHR to create a list of proposed legislation to protect higher education. 

One policy calls for Virginia campuses to be reinstated as “protected sanctuary sites” and prohibits cooperation between campus police departments and ICE. It would codify the requests into state law if officially proposed and passed. Leff said a member of the General Assembly has already agreed to sponsor a bill carrying the proposal — though it depends on the Nov. 4 election results. 

Leff said the federal administration is weaponizing ICE to “quell political dissent” on campuses.

“We have seen ICE begin using racial profiling on college and university campuses to attack Latinx students and their families,” Leff said. “Education is a human right, and if people are afraid to come to campus or speak out because of the threat of ICE, then that would fundamentally dismantle the promise of higher education.”

First-year student Alex Cox said he thinks ICE has no business on campus and described the idea as “sickening.”

“I don’t like ICE at all,” Cox said. “I think it’s inhumane and absurd, the things the general public has been allowing to slide in terms of this administration as a whole. Seeing ICE on campus is … [a] nightmare.”

Cox said the precedent for racial profiling set by the Supreme Court is concerning to him because of his family’s immigrant background and Spanish surnames.

“Hispanics are everywhere, immigrants of every kind are everywhere, and this is really disproportionately affecting Black and brown people especially,” Cox said. “I feel like Afro-Latinos get forgotten about, but they’re also disproportionately affected.”

Michelle Poole, a second-year journalism student, said the presence of ICE officials would endanger students with visas in particular. She is skeptical that VCU would defend students by denying them access. She noted the concern over unwarranted detainments extends to her as a Black student. 

“If I had to put an emotion to it, it would definitely be anger,” Poole said. “And also fear in a way. People have to realize that it’s not just one demographic of people of color at risk, it’s now all people of color.”

Kaleb Morton, a second-year biology student, believes ICE deployment on campus is unnecessary. He instead supports building a deeper relationship between VCU Police and students to increase security. He said ICE is not fulfilling their obligation as federal workers to protect and serve.

“The slightest increment of bias, hate or even just an oversaturated sense of power can lead anybody who is in that position to racially profile anybody,” Morton said. “It’s gonna be purely based off of self-interest at that point.”

Lola Good, a second-year forensic science student, is looking ahead to what all Americans can do to prevent violence towards citizens at the hands of immigration officials. 

“I would say I’m honestly just confused and scared how we as Americans are letting this happen,” Good said. 

All four students said they thought a proposal to put limits on how VCU could cooperate with ICE in some way is a sound idea. 

VCU declined a request for comment by The CT.