Stanford University leaders have decided not to take on the “sanctuary campus” label, a student group said Thursday after meeting with top school officials to ask for greater protections for undocumented immigrants.
Student members of Stanford Sanctuary Now met with Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne for nearly two hours on Thursday .
After the meeting, M.D./Ph.D. student Cesar Lopez, of Stanford Sanctuary Now, said that students learned that university officials have definitively decided not to designate Stanford as a “sanctuary campus.”
Lopez said it would mean a lot to the vulnerable groups the university seeks to protect for Stanford to take leadership and designate itself a “sanctuary campus.” But he also acknowledges that “the fear of retaliation is a real fear” under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“There are symbolic gestures Stanford can take and there are concrete actions Stanford can take,” Lopez said. “Being a sanctuary campus is one of the best symbolic gestures Stanford can take that carry weight for current and prospective students.”
Stanford spokesman Ernest Miranda said Friday: “What the president said was that sanctuary is a term that is not well-defined, and that it actually could be detrimental to our students and employees to use such a label. He also noted that none of our peer institutions have done so.”
Lopez said he was heartened to learn during the meeting that the university has initiated various working groups to get help to those who need it most. These working groups will be one of the main points of contact for Stanford Sanctuary Now, Lopez said.
Thursday’s meeting took place almost exactly a month after Stanford students, faculty members and employees rallied and marched to Tessier-Lavigne’s office to deliver a list of demands on Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration.
Stanford Sanctuary Now said in a statement that it envisions the university becoming a model in the sanctuary campus movement by “dedicating university resources to affirm the rights and dignity of immigrant communities both on campus and in the broader Bay Area.” For one, the students demand a “need-blind admissions policy for all international and undocumented students.”
Stanford administrators reaffirmed in recent weeks that, unless legally required to do so, they plan to keep student and personnel records private, and leave immigration enforcement as a responsibility of the federal government.
Stanford and the university’s law school are also coordinating outside pro bono legal help for those impacted by Trump’s executive order on Jan. 27 banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, acceptance of refugees for 120 days and acceptance of Syrian refuges indefinitely.
Stanford and 16 other universities have filed an amicus brief challenging Trump’s order.
“By prohibiting persons from freely traveling to and from this country, the executive order divides students and their families, impairs the ability of American universities to draw the finest international talent, and inhibits the free exchange of ideas,” according to the court filing.
Santa Clara County officials have said they will challenge Trump’s order to strip federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions that “willfully violate federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States.”
The Palo Alto Unified School District school board declared in January that the district’s campuses are sanctuaries for students who are undocumented immigrants.
Palo Alto is not a sanctuary city, though city law enforcement officials have said they rely on the federal government to enforce immigration law and only take action when finding out someone they’ve already contacted happens to have an arrest warrant for an immigration violation.
