Students Call on California Colleges to Protect Campuses From Immigration Enforcement

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Fearing immigration enforcement on or near college campuses during President Donald Trump’s second term, students across the state have been demanding university officials offer more protections. Students have been protesting against Trump’s pledge of mass deportations at campuses such as UC Berkeley and Sacramento State. Recently, about 300 students at Cal State Northridge gathered on their university’s lawn with signs, flags and megaphones in hand. They chanted “Jobs and education, not mass deportation” and “Say it loud, say it clear, ICE is not welcome here.”

At Cal State Northridge, where 71% of students are the first in their family to go to college and 80% are students of color, many protestors said they have peers or family members who could be affected by increased immigration enforcement. An estimated 100,000 college students live in California without permanent legal status, and 3.3 million Californians live in mixed-status households, according to data from Equity Research Institute, a USC research group.

In January, the Trump administration scrapped policies dating back to 2011 that limited immigration agents from arresting people at churches, schools and other areas designated as “sensitive locations.” Despite the change, there have been few, if any, reports of immigration arrests on or near California college campuses — but for students like Karisma Ramos Ayala, who grew up in a mixed-status household, the fear and anger remain.

“I don’t think ICE should be anywhere near schools or colleges or students,” said Ramos Ayala, an undergraduate creative writing major at Cal State Northridge. “It’s really sad and scary at the same time. People are here for education, they’re here for something good, and we can’t let that be taken away.”

Many of California’s colleges and universities provide resources for immigrant students and students from mixed-status families, including “Know Your Rights” cards, on-campus Dream resource centers and free immigration legal services through partner nonprofits. However, public higher education institutions are limited by federal laws from attempting to prevent immigration enforcement agents from coming onto or near public parts of campus.

“The universities couldn’t physically try to stop immigration enforcement from coming on the campuses, but there’s a lot that can be done through legal means and just providing assistance to students that could be important in these times,” said Kevin R. Johnson, an immigration law professor and the former dean of the UC Davis School of Law. “Tensions are high right now, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

State and campuses offer guidance

State Attorney General Rob Bonta issued guidance to California’s public colleges and universities, outlining that immigration enforcement agents are able to enter campus areas that are generally open to the public, such as central quads. For private areas, such as campus housing, immigration enforcement officers do not have a right to enter without a judicial warrant, due to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Policies for where immigration enforcement officers can and cannot enter become murkier when it comes to other campus areas, such as classrooms, student services centers and labs. According to Bonta’s directives, immigration enforcement officers do not have the right to enter campus locations that are “designated for students and staff only.” This varies significantly from campus to campus, because while some colleges and universities designate certain buildings as restricted by posting signage or requiring student IDs, others do not.

Each of the state’s three public higher education systems have published guidance on how to respond to immigration enforcement, emphasizing that California campus police departments are prohibited by a 2017 state law from “generally providing personal information … about an individual for immigration enforcement purposes, including, but not limited to, the individual’s home address or work address, unless that information is available to the public.”

The California Community Colleges system, which serves the largest share of students in California who lack permanent legal status, issued a directive (PDF) to its 116 colleges reminding administrators of their obligations “to prevent students, staff, and faculty from participating in federal immigration enforcement efforts unless required by state or federal law.” The California State University and University of California systems have communicated similar information to administrators, faculty and staff, and all three systems offer web pages with system-specific immigration information and resources.

Like many other California colleges and universities, Cal Poly Humboldt outlines on its website that anyone who sees an immigration enforcement officer on campus should immediately call the chief human resources officer or campus police, and should not “voluntarily grant access” to any non-public places, if the officer does not have a judicial warrant. Similarly, the UC system advises any university employee who is asked by an immigration enforcement officer to grant access to campus housing to “ask the officer for documentation of their name, identification number, agency affiliation, and business card; ask for a copy of any warrant or subpoena presented, inform the officer that you are not obstructing their process but need to consult with Campus Counsel for assistance, and contact Campus Counsel.”

Private university campuses are generally not considered open to the public, meaning immigration enforcement officers would need a judicial warrant to enter. At the University of Southern California, a five-step protocol for staff who are presented with a warrant includes asking for an officer’s credentials and contact information, referring the officer to the university’s office of the general counsel and not attempting to physically block the officer.

When the Trump administration threw out the “sensitive locations” policy, a statement from the Department of Homeland Security said the change was “to empower law enforcement to protect Americans.”

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement said. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

Key to California institutions’ strategies for supporting immigrant and mixed-status students are Dream resource centers, which are on-campus spaces that offer assistance with financial aid forms, mental health support, academic resources and referrals to nonprofit immigration law firms. A 2019 state law first encouraged the designation of Dream center liaisons, and, in the more than five years since, the state has provided $52.2 million to fund the centers and personnel.

Alouette Cervantes-Salazar, the Dream Resource Center coordinator at East Los Angeles College, has been hosting check-in chats in the months since the 2024 presidential election, to outline students’ rights and hear their concerns. The chats include information from lawyers at the Central American Resource Center, a nonprofit immigration service provider which partners with 20 colleges and universities across the state.

“We focus on what we can do, and what is in our control, and continuing to have a safe place for all students, regardless of their immigration status,” Cervantes-Salazar said. Her center has served students from Costa Rica, England, Nigeria, Mexico, Myanmar and more than 20 other countries.

Advocates push for further protections

Campus protesters have not only called on Trump to change course on immigration, but also for their universities to do more to support students. At Cal State Northridge, protesters urged university officials to declare the school a “sanctuary campus” and bar any immigration enforcement officers from entering campus. At Sacramento State, students read poems and shared their families’ immigration stories, calling for the campus to unite behind immigrant students.

Cal State system spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith wrote in a statement to CalMatters that the system’s 23 campuses are “deeply committed to ensuring academic opportunities are available to all students, regardless of immigration status.”

“Core to the CSU mission is providing a space where all students feel welcomed and safe as they pursue their education,” the statement said. “The CSU will do everything we can to support our undocumented community.”

Aditi Hariharan, the president of the UC Student Association and an undergraduate at UC Davis, wants the UC system to dedicate more funding for immigration resources. The organization is also pushing California campuses to notify their communities immediately, through alert systems, if immigration enforcement officials are spotted nearby.

Hariharan criticized the UC system for rejecting a student-led proposal last year to allow students who lack permanent legal status to work on-campus jobs. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar proposal, citing potential liability for the state if it were to implement the policy.

“I think that the fears present on campus currently extrapolate to the whole campus community, and it’s vital for UC to really prove to its undocumented students that it’s in support of them, or else it’s really difficult to cultivate a safe campus environment,” Hariharan said.

A UC system statement emphasized the resources they offer to immigrant students, which include help with financial aid forms, mental health counseling and legal advising.

“We recognize there is uncertainty among many in the University of California community in light of actions from the federal administration,” the statement said. “The University continues to closely monitor and assess the potential impacts to our communities. We proudly welcome students from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, regardless of immigration status.”

Some conservative student groups have mobilized on campuses and on social media to back the Trump administration’s stance that colleges should not be sanctuary locations, including at Cal State Long Beach, where a handful of demonstrators recently held signs that read “We support mass deportations.” As the student newspaper The Long Beach Current reported, protesters and counter-protesters debated the role of immigration enforcement and the safety of students on campus.

Chicano studies professor Rosa Rivera Furumoto spoke at the Cal State Northridge protest to support immigrants, at the invitation of the student organizers. She said she is hopeful as she sees “a youth movement” against Trump’s immigration enforcement policies gain traction across the state.

“We’re in a situation that is really scary, and we need to rise up,” Rivera Furumoto said.

Delilah Brumer is a fellow with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.