App State student gov demands funds for illegals after new EO

The Appalachian State University Student Government is demanding the school assist illegal immigrants with free legal resources, online courses, safe spaces, and mandatory faculty training.

In an official statement urging the university to become a sanctuary campus, the SGA decries Trump’s recent executive order regarding immigration and, in addition to traditional sanctuary campus policies, “requests” an additional 10 measures to aid and abet illegal immigrants.

“Our campus must resist this discriminatory and invasive federal measure which could prohibit many students fulfilling their dream to attain a college education,” the statement reads. “We must resist an unjust measure that will tear apart families and deport people from the place they call home.”

[RELATED: Petition calling Trump EO ‘un-American’ signed by 30K+ profs]

On top of an official university statement denouncing Trump’s executive order and a refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, the SGA demands that the school provide free legal counsel “specializing in immigration law” to illegal immigrant and international students.

The document also piles on additional financial responsibilities for App State, including “funds for a general ‘Teach In’ on the Executive Order” and funds for faculty, employees, and students who are either illegal immigrants or have family who are illegal immigrants.

Further, to ensure a “community experience that is free of hostilities, aggressions, and bullying,” the SGA argues that all faculty should have to attend mandatory trainings for “intervention techniques of de-escalation.”

The statement continues on to demand safe spaces, asking the school to “identify particular spaces on campus where those who feel threatened can seek refuge and protection.”

[RELATED: Safe space ‘conversation’ ‘not intended to be an open discussion’]

In case safe spaces aren’t enough to ease the mental health of illegal students, the SGA says they should also have access to mental health professionals who “have cultural competency in working with politically marginalized communities and trauma-related issues of familial separation, the threat of deportation, and harassment.”

However, many are not happy with the SGA’s statement, and comments on the Facebook post implore the SGA to “realize that laws exist” and “remember that IF federal funding were to be cut from this public campus, MANY of our campus’ students wouldn’t be able to afford [to attend].”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @amber_athey