Education, Not Deportation: Building a Sanctuary Campus at UMD

Written by: Emely Gonzalez 🇸🇻

PROFANITY: Protest sign using a vulgar expression at the rally (credit: Emely Gonzalez)

Sanctuary cities were first established in the United States in 1971, when Berkeley, California declared itself a safe place for U.S. Navy soldiers who resisted the Vietnam War.

As sanctuary cities grew over the years, jurisdictions adopted varying policies on information-sharing and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Despite these differences, they share one common goal: safety.

But what does it mean to have a sanctuary campus?

On Feb. 10, the Young Democratic Socialist of America (YDSA) in collaboration with Political Latinx United for Movement and Action in Society (PLUMAS), Students for Justice in Palestine at UMD, the Anti-Imperalist Movement at UMD and TerpCHRP, held an “ICE off campus” rally. 

The event promoted a YDSA initiative urging the University of Maryland administration to designate the university as a sanctuary campus to ensure a safe space for international, immigrant and undocumented students.

The demands directed at the administration include several actions to limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These include refusing ICE agents access to nonpublic areas without a judicial warrant and denying access to student or staff information.

Organizers also called on the university to notify individuals within 24 hours if their information is requested by immigration authorities.

Another demand asks the university to preserve and clarify resources for immigrant and undocumented students by reaffirming the status of immigrant and undocumented student life offices, and restoring the Immigrant and Undocumented Student Life website as a resource hub.

“From Palestine to Mexico, all these walls have got to go,” protesters chanted during the rally, drawing connections between the situation in Palestine and immigration enforcement in the United States.

Zyad Khan, a student speaker from UMD Justice in Palestine, referenced a letter written by Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman and New Jersey resident currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on International Women’s Day.

The letter read, “The struggle of the Palestinian woman is never-ending. There is no way to measure the grief. A nurse who continues to work at the hospital, saving lives after losing all of her children. Wives separated from their husbands, families torn apart, which is something that happens often in detention, too.” 

Khan emphasized the connection between global conflicts and immigration enforcement in the United States. 

“The same tactics that we see here today have been tested out on Palestine, our families and friends are targets, and our university has failed us, shame,” he said.

While there has been no direct response from the university administration, Nick DiSpirito, the College Park City Council’s student liaison, discussed the support that the city council has expressed for anti-ICE legislation in Annapolis and now on campus.

“I’ve spoken to the mayor of College Park along with city council members and staff about this initiative and in partnership with YDSA we are in talks of sending a letter of support for this initiative to President Pines,” he said.

Students have long been at the forefront of social change, and the University of Maryland is no exception.

YDSA encourages all those who can to write a letter to support making the University of Maryland a sanctuary campus.