The aims of the campus sanctuary movement are deeply important and moral. No student — or staff or faculty member, for that matter — should have to fear harassment, detention, or deportation over their immigration status while on a college campus. Advocates for the movement are providing essential voices supporting DACA and undocumented students on our campuses.
(DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy put in place by the Obama administration, allows some young, undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States temporarily.)
Even as I wholeheartedly support the goals of the sanctuary movement, there are important reasons why I choose not to use the word “sanctuary,” as articulated in various declarations from colleges. The central issue is that I can’t be certain that private institutions like mine (I am president of Pomona College) can truly deliver all of the protections implied in the term “sanctuary campus.” We simply don’t hold the legal powers of states and cities, and we are not able to block every conceivable action by immigration enforcers.
What’s more, the sanctuary campus concept can mean different things to different people, and clarity in communication is critical in an uncertain, unfolding situation like the one we are facing. A sanctuary that is too narrowly defined, one that comes with asterisks and restrictions, may not be the refuge the very word suggests. And if the real purpose behind sanctuary declarations is symbolic, I would make the case that we need concrete and unified action at this point much more than we need symbolism.
There is much we can do. Tangible steps that we and others in higher education have taken include:
- Treating undocumented students as domestic students for the purposes of admission and financial aid
- Offering on-site, pro-bono legal counseling, as well as off-site resources and information for alumni and students’ families
- Replacing DACA students’ campus-work funding with grants if work permits are revoked
- Offering emergency grants for immigration and legal fees
- Specifically directing campus safety officers not to ask about any person’s legal status
Those are a few of the measures we have taken at Pomona. Collective action may be the most important step of all. I am deeply encouraged that the presidents of more than 600 institutions, from 44 states and Washington, D.C., have signed a statement in support of DACA and undocumented students. That statement has attracted national and international attention from the media, as well as from leaders in the nation’s capital. An important reason it has drawn so much interest lies in the sheer breadth of support: Very different institutions, including public, private, and community colleges, along with faith-based institutions, have united in the effort to defend students and the DACA program.
Ultimately, I believe we can do much more for vulnerable community members by not only taking clear, tangible steps on each of our campuses, but also by joining together in a growing movement and speaking out with persistence. In this new environment, our institutions cannot be islands set off from the larger society, nor is there time to focus our administrative resources on symbolic and carefully parsed declarations customized to each of our campuses. Protection for all members of our communities lies not in pulling back into a patchwork of self-defined sanctuaries, but in pushing outward into the public realm and insisting our voices be heard.
David Oxtoby has served as Pomona College’s president since 2003. He will step down at the end of this academic year.
