Statement on Support of Immigrant Students

Tell your school to support immigrant rights!

Statement Text                     Download Now

Students For Liberty North America is proud to offer this statement of support for immigrant students across the United States and Canada. Please use this letter as a resource to encourage your college or university to adopt a few simple policies that will help protect the rights of your classmates whose immigration status is now at risk thanks to the restrictive policies of the Trump administration.

Here’s how to use this document:

1. Fill out the quick form below to download the document as a .pdf.

2. Print off one or more copies or re-save as an editable document for dissemination to other student groups.

3. Collect as many signatures as possible. (Print off more copies of Page 2 if you need more space.)

4. Deliver to your administration at a public gathering or through official channels, and encourage them to commit to the outlined policies to protect student rights.

5. Let us know how it went! For more information, or to report back on a successful effort, please contact SFL’s North American Chairman Wade Craig at [email protected].

Fill out this form first:

Full statement text:

In the wake of recent actions taken by the Trump administration, lives have been disrupted, basic human rights trammeled, and hopes dashed for those seeking to escape from tragedies perpetrated both by the United States and others.

There can be no justifying this restriction of the peaceful free movement of human beings between countries. The plight of those groups whose vulnerability leaves them unable to fend for themselves, such as refugees and victims of political or religious persecution, is especially concerning. The fact that recent actions ordered by the president and enforced by the Department of Homeland Security are targeted at precisely these vulnerable groups is a moral outrage, contravening even the basic standards of decency common to every civilized culture.

Colleges and universities across the U.S. have a special place in the American cultural landscape and an institutional location that enables them to be either great aid to their immigrant students or a profound danger. These institutions of higher learning must not sit idly by while many of their students bear the brunt of the suffering caused by these new restrictions. Over 1 million documented international students currently attend American universities in addition to a difficult to estimate number of undocumented immigrants. It would be a grave moral omission for colleges and universities to ignore this population. The example of the University of Michigan in this regard is one that all American institutions of higher education should follow.

We therefore call upon universities everywhere to (re-)affirm their commitment to the protection of their students by enacting the following policies:

• Admission decisions will not consider students’ immigration status, whether on the basis of country of origin or legal documentation.

• The university will not share information on the immigration status of its students to any entity, private or public, except when compelled by law.

• Campus police will not pursue or record information concerning immigration status of anyone with whom they interact.

• Campus police will not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Protection in enforcing immigration restrictions, except when compelled by law.

Through these measures, immigrant students in the U.S. can have a measure of protection from legal persecution. These measures should be nearly costless and their implementation both easy and swift.

A commitment such as the above will provide a basic degree of security for immigrant students, and will signal American universities’ continued support for the natural rights of immigrants in the U.S.