Students petition for immigrant student sanctuary policies
Students are petitioning university officials to declare Rice a sanctuary campus, which offers protections to international and undocumented students and, notably, does not cooperate with immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant. The petition garnered over 400 signatures by March 4, said Conner Schultz, the co-chair of Rice’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. Rice YDSA spearheaded the petition, which has now been co-signed by campus organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, Planned Parenthood Generation and Rice Urbanists.
The petition asks Rice to publicly declare itself as a sanctuary for undocumented students, workers and associates and codify a refusal to work with state and federal immigration agents without a judicial warrant, which would include not letting such agents onto Rice’s private campus.
Schultz, one of the primary petition authors, said he started researching sanctuary campuses in January. The movement picked up in 2016, after Donald Trump was elected to his first presidential term — schools like the University of Pennsylvania and Texas A&M University either adopted or considered the label.
“Trump is back in office and pushing a lot of anti-immigration, anti-international rhetoric,” Schultz said. “The Department of Homeland Security declared that schools are no longer safe zones from ICE raids. So Rice is at risk, and every single college in the United States is at risk of dealing with immigration [enforcement].”
Federal immigration agents must be allowed on campus if they have a judicial warrant. If they have an administrative warrant, they must receive Rice’s permission to enter, according to an FAQ by the Office of International Students and Scholars.
“The law requires Rice to allow federal immigration agents on campus to discuss immigration matters with university officials, including OISS,” the website reads. “RUPD has no plans to independently enforce federal immigration law. However, it must comply with judicial warrants given to it by other law enforcement agencies.”
A judicial warrant, which is issued by a judge, allows immigration enforcement to enter private property such as Rice. An administrative warrant, issued by an agency like ICE, does not carry the same legal force. Schultz said administration indicated they would cooperate with administrative warrants as well, also allowing enforcement to access OISS records — which include information about student immigration status.
“On a Zoom call with faculty two weeks ago, the RUPD chief [Clemente Rodriguez], and the General Counsel, Omar Syed, both confirmed that they were willing to work with ICE and FBI if they wish to come on campus,” Schultz said. “And not only that, they also said they would do it if they had an administrative warrant.”
University administration and RUPD declined to comment.
The petition calls for Rice to guarantee the privacy of international students and staff by refusing to disclose immigration status information to immigration enforcement and provide educational and legal support to students who are arrested, detained or deported.
“I don’t have any bad faith with administration. They’re going to try to support their students the best way they can,” Schultz said. “But I feel like they’re also going to cave if ICE actually puts pressure onto them. That’s what my biggest fear is, because we have a hostile state government and hostile federal government towards immigration.”
Schultz said he sees the sanctuary campus as a way for Rice to show it is committed to protecting its students by ingraining it in their policy. He said he hopes to get 1,500 signatures by March to send the petition to Rice officials and in the meantime is also drafting a resolution for the Student Association.
Sammi Frey, co-president of Rice Young Democrats, said she encourages Rice students to stay aware of immigration enforcement activity in Houston. RYD did not co-sign the petition, and Frey did not comment on why.
“The feeling of protection that Rice’s gates provide to many of us is a privilege and can blind us from seeing things just 30 minutes away, like Colony Ridge, where over 100 people got arrested by ICE agents,” Frey wrote in an email to the Thresher. “I didn’t hear one person talking about that the next day — pay attention to that silence and don’t let yourself contribute to it.”
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