The Students’ Association Government (SA) passed Senate Resolution 73, titled Resolution to Protect the University’s International and Immigrant Populations, Feb. 3 in response to the Trump administration’s recent executive orders impacting the livelihoods of such populations, on a 13–2 vote.
The resolution specifies administrative actions that include declining to create a policy restricting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from entering schools, churches, and hospitals. It also refers to past instances of Trump questioning the legitimacy of documented immigrants and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Encouraging the University to declare itself a sanctuary campus, the resolution says that all people have the right to “live, learn, and work at the University of Rochester, including our international students, DACA recipients, and undocumented students.”
Senators Jacob Edwards and Janelly Andrade-Gonzales, who sponsored and wrote the resolution, spoke to the CT regarding their reasons for writing the resolution.
“I had hoped it was a way for me to show solidarity with people that I care about,” Edwards said. “Especially when they are going through a time where they might have so much other stuff to worry about that they don’t have the bandwidth to focus on something like this, or to write something like this.”
As of the time of the resolution’s passing, the UR President’s Office had released a response to the executive orders stating that “We will continue to protect the rights and privacy of our students, staff, faculty, and patients in accordance with our obligations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the federal Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).”
The statement also advises University community members to contact their supervisor or Department of Public Safety if they see or are approached by federal agents at any University location, and further affirms University values of inclusion and equity.
In Senator Andrade-Gonzales’ words, the University’s response was “vague.”
“The main thing that we saw is them talking about how they’re going to handle ICE, more so than how the students are actually going to be protected,” she said. “They did not give resources or even reassurance, just [directed students] to the International Service Office.”
At the time of this interview, the International Service Office did not have explicit resources for students for the recent federal policy changes on their website. Currently, the Student Association’s International Students’ Affairs Committee is working on creating and sharing resources for these groups of students.
SA President Elijah Bader-Gregory endorsed the resolution and expressed the need for immediate response.
“I think that the University’s response has been good, to an extent — they can go further in protecting our students, faculty, and staff from ICE harassment,” Bader-Gregory said. “When students are treated inequitably, regardless of how you feel about their background, we have a moral responsibility to call it out. Standing idly by and pointedly ignoring the fact that immigrant and international students are being actively targeted by ICE is irresponsible at best, and I believe that all of our students deserve to live without fear of their immigration status preventing them from getting a quality education, living their lives, and staying in the US.”
Multiple on-campus student organizations were endorsers of the Senate Resolution, and have also played a key role in spreading awareness about the executive orders through social media posts, resources, and workshops. These organizations include the Spanish and Latino Students’ Association (SALSA), the Mexican Students’ Association (MESA), and the Douglass Leadership House (DLH).
SALSA represents Latin American culture, but it also has been politically active on campus in recent years, speaking out on ongoing issues in Latin America and the Middle East. Paoula Almendarez, president of SALSA, told the CT that the organization endorsed the resolution to provide vocal support for marginalized groups in the University community.
“There’s not much we can do in terms of, like, policy but we can provide a space for people to speak. We can provide support for individuals, we can try to, like, educate ourselves and educate other people as much as possible,” Almendarez said.
Almendarez emphasized the videos linked on SALSA’s Linktree, which are available in both English and Spanish for more information about undocumented people’s rights and ways to support immigrants.
MESA also endorsed the resolution. Senator Andrade-Gonzales, who is the president of MESA as well, highlighted the “Know your Rights” card, a red card that you can find on the door of the SA Senate Office in the Ruth Merrill Center located on the basement floor of Wilson Commons. The card includes information about constitutional rights and instructions on how to interact with law enforcement.
The Douglass Leadership House (DLH) also endorsed the resolution. In email correspondence with the CT, Secretary of DLH and sophomore Sammy Randle wrote that they “chose to endorse the resolution because our purpose in this campus is to provide an intellectual community and raise awareness about the many facets of the Black experience. This includes our international and immigrant population.”
Senators Austin DeLorme and Yuxiang Huang were the two senators that voted no on the bill. DeLorme explained his reasoning behind his decision with CT.
“While I do think that we need to give resources and help international students and DACA recipients […] I do not think that we should make ourselves a sanctuary campus to conflict with federal regulations and authorities that ICE is trying to place on us,” DeLorme stated. “If we do not comply with [the Trump administration’s] orders, that means we could possibly lose millions of dollars in federal funding.”
DeLorme instead argued for advocacy.
After these statements from students were taken, the University updated their response to federal policies March 18, outlining guidelines and recommendations for international travel. In their most recent update, the International Services Office has done the same and linked campus resources and support for students.
Resolution 73 also aims to protect student protestors who are also immigrants from being deported. With the federal attempt to deport Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, the threat of deportation has become more pronounced in the recent weeks, especially for international students who are pro-Palestinian protestors.
Students held a protest March 20 in support of Khalil and the protection of student activism for all students in the University and throughout the nation.
Due to confidentiality reasons, the University Counseling Center has not organized drop-in counseling for students affected by the recent executive orders on immigration as they have done for other large events, but students can still reach out for one-on-one or small group dropins.
