In a move highlighting the uncertainty surrounding the future of undocumented students on college campuses across the country, Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust said on Tuesday afternoon that the institution would not be designated a sanctuary campus.
The term sanctuary campus has no precise legal definition but echoes the policies of “sanctuary cities” like San Francisco and New York City. Sanctuary cities are cities that have adopted policies designed to protect undocumented immigrants by forbidding police and municipal employees to inquire about immigration status, not allocating municipal funds to enforce national immigration laws, and other measures.
According to the Harvard Crimson, Faust said that designating Harvard as a sanctuary campus might only serve to put undocumented students at greater risk.
“It also risks drawing special attention to the students in ways that could put their status in greater jeopardy,” she said at a Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting. “I believe it would endanger, rather than protect, our students, and that is not something I am willing for this institution to do.”
More than 500 university presidents, including Faust, have signed a statement pledging support to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and undocumented students on campus. The statement is being circulated by Pomona College.
DACA allows certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to apply for a two-year program that defers deportation, provides eligibility for a work permit, and allows them to attend universities and colleges. In some states, DACA students are also eligible for in-state tuition at public universities and colleges. The program does not provide a path to citizenship.
Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber, who also signed the Pomona petition, reiterated in a statement to the Princeton community last week the lack of legal basis for making Princeton a sanctuary campus. “Immigration lawyers with whom we have consulted have told us that this concept has no basis in law, and that colleges and universities have no authority to exempt any part of their campuses from the nation’s immigration laws,” he wrote.
