Campus police won't enforce immigration law, CSUSM tells illegals
A California university is reassuring anxious illegal immigrant students that they have nothing to fear from U.S. Border Patrol agents on campus, promising the school will refuse to enforce immigration law.
California State University, San Marcos stated in an email Friday informing students that the agency would be on campus for a career fair next week, but only in a “recruitment capacity” and not an “enforcement capacity.”
The email, a copy of which was obtained by Campus Reform, even cited a recently-enacted policy on its relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which pledges that university police “will not enter into agreements” with ICE.
Additionally, the policy assures students that the campus police department does not have the jurisdiction to inquire whether or not a person is lawfully present on campus, saying “individuals will not be contacted, detained, questioned or arrested by UPD solely on the basis of being or suspected of being undocumented.”
[RELATED: Protesters kicked off campus for flying state flag]
“We want every member of our community to know that it is safe to interact with and seek assistance from the university police department, no matter who you are and no matter how you self-identify,” it continues, before explaining that the university police department is there to create “a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.”
The school’s relationship with ICE was called into question earlier this year when students feared for their “safety and wellbeing” during a similar career fair at Cal State, which has now resulted in the school’s administration alerting students ahead of time that “these agencies are attending.”
[RELATED: ‘Undocumented’ Cal students fear Border Patrol’s participation in career fair]
The email also notes that the school will allow for the “broadest possible latitude” for students to exercise “free speech and expression,” thus giving tacit endorsement to protest ICE’s presence on campus, as they did in the spring.
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