On the first day of his second term, President Trump signed a series of 45 executive orders. Among this flurry of legislation were two entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” and “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States”. With these actions, Trump aims to “defend” the American people by launching what Trump called the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.
Under this objective, the Department of Homeland Security has authorized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enter previously protected locations like churches, schools and hospitals in order to arrest and deport people with suspected undocumented status. At a faculty meeting on Jan. 24, Chancellor Lee Roberts announced that UNC will comply if ICE pursues students on campus during the Trump administration.
The University's complicity with these executive orders is reprehensible; a public university should serve as a bastion for community learning and improvement. If a student is admitted to UNC, which purports to prize meritocracy and institutional neutrality above all, their deportation would be not only an inexcusable act of violence against them, but a loss to the overall diversity of thought and academic excellence our University prioritizes. The loss of even one peer is felt by the entire community. The mere threat of violence against students — our classmates, peers, friends — seeking education is deplorable.
Contrary to claims by the Trump administration that mass deportations will ensure Americans’ safety, security and financial and economic well-being, immigrants are essential to the economic prosperity of our country. Immigration expands a country's labor force and increases consumer spending, yielding an overall economic boost. Further, immigrants bring with them a diversity of thought that contributes to increased innovation, especially essential at a university. In order to cultivate a socially and economically prosperous community at UNC, we need people from diverse backgrounds.
Educators across the country are choosing to uphold immigrant students' right to safety during this time of blatant animosity. Public schools in New York, California and Chicago have issued resolutions to not comply with ICE officers attempting to prevent their students' education. Despite administrative attempts to frame our University's compliance as a neutral obligation to obey an indelible law, institutional interpretations of this legislation are still in flux.
Moreover, these executive orders challenge existing legislation, further complicating the compliance expected of universities. FERPA protects students' right to private information and records, which includes immigration status. When asked how this long-standing legislation would be affected by the recent executive directives, Roberts was steadfast in UNC's compliance with law enforcement. He remarked that he didn't want to try to issue an interpretation “on the fly.”
I empathize with the UNC administration's uncertainty during this tumultuous legislative landscape — it must be difficult having your way of life subjected to the whims of an arbitrary agenda. If only administrators could extend this same empathy to undocumented students facing similar, and more dangerous, uncertainty.
If UNC truly values serving as a center for research, scholarship and creativity to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders as the website says, institutional neutrality cannot be used as a shield to abet violence against the very students seeking an education here.
The innovation, empathy and excellence of our Carolina community depends on the presence of students from all walks of life. UNC must choose to protect its students and reject the blatantly cruel rhetoric of the Trump administration which attempts to paint undocumented people as inhuman. When it comes to the safety of our communities, we cannot choose to remain neutral.
