Sanctuary Campus

Illustration by Martín Elfman for The Chronicle

The Trump administration’s pledge to crack down on undocumented immigrants has spurred protests and demands that colleges shield their students. It has also led to a wave of confusion over how — or how aggressively — the administration will carry out that pledge.

While colleges are bracing for uncertainty and conflicting messages in the months ahead, campus leaders are taking a variety of steps to support students who lack legal residency status. About a dozen colleges have declared their campuses “sanctuaries,” and many more are choosing to help undocumented students in other ways.

President Trump has said he would deport millions of immigrants who lack proper documentation. He has also, at times, said he would roll back protections provided by the Obama administration through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which has allowed more than 740,000 immigrants to study and work in this country on two-year renewable terms. The uncertainty and possible loss of DACA status has created confusion for campus leaders and has led undocumented students and their supporters to circulate petitions asking hundreds of colleges to declare themselves sanctuaries for immigrants enrolled there.

Wesleyan University is among those that have adopted the label of “sanctuary campus” to signal disapproval of the president’s policies. Michael S. Roth, the president, says that means that Wesleyan will protect information about students who are not legal residents, and will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities unless they have a warrant to carry out arrests.

Nothing Wesleyan is doing puts it at odds with federal law, Mr. Roth says. His university has information about which students have legal-resident status, but that information is also protected by federal student-privacy laws and would not normally be shared with agencies or law-enforcement officials without some legal requirement to do so.

“We’re using the law as we think it is meant to be used” — to demand due process, Mr. Roth says.

In fact, Steven McDonald, general counsel at the Rhode Island School of Design and an expert on student privacy, said in an email that releasing student records without a student’s consent or a subpoena would violate federal law under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The National Immigration Law Center, meanwhile, has compiled a list of policy recommendations and a model resolution for colleges that wish to create a “safe zone” to protect undocumented students. Jessica Hanson, a fellow at the center who helped develop the guidelines, says the center wanted to avoid the term “sanctuary” because it had been politicized by those who oppose the movement to protect undocumented immigrants.

A backlash to the sanctuary-campus movement has grown among some state and federal lawmakers, who have threatened to punish colleges for protecting undocumented students. Other college presidents are concerned about the possible impact on their students but warn that the term is too broad and may imply a level of protection that the campus cannot actually provide.

“Immigration lawyers with whom we have consulted have told us that this concept has no basis in law,” Princeton University’s president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, said in a statement. He said the university’s lawyers had advised that “colleges and universities have no authority to exempt any part of their campuses from the nation’s immigration laws.”

No college has pledged to actually defy or resist law-enforcement efforts, which could result in a civil offense, according to Ms. Hanson. Even the protection that many students have under the DACA program could be problematic, because it has given the government all the information they need to identify and locate those who have registered.

David Oxtoby, president of Pomona College, has said he supports the goals of sanctuary campuses but does not use the term because of his institution’s limited legal authority. (See Commentary, below.) Instead, colleges like Pomona are promising to support students in ways within their authority, such as offering free legal counseling, awarding emergency grants for immigration and legal fees, and treating undocumented students the same as others for the purposes of admissions and financial aid.

Mr. Oxtoby is also one of more than 600 college presidents who have signed a letter urging President Trump to continue the DACA program.

Wesleyan’s president, Mr. Roth, says he understands the concerns about overpromising but also thinks it’s important to take a strong stance against Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportations. “I think the far greater danger is to not send an indication to the new administration that we would not cooperate with mass deportation,” he says.

The term “sanctuary” may be more of a political moniker than a legal designation, he acknowledges.

“The idea of mass deportation is also political,” he says, as is “using immigrants as scapegoats.

“And taking a stand against that is important.”

Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.