Dell Omo Vows "Compliance" with Counter Immigrant Measures

Sample tweet:
https://twitter.com/bwitanek/status/832076074850906113

ICE
OFF
CAMPUS!

Five days after I publicly brought the question to the floor of Rider University by blogging about the administration’s response to the travel ban  and immigrant crack down:

http://riderstudentsunion.blogspot.com/2017/02/is-rider-cooperating-with-increasingly.html

And 3 weeks almost after Trump launched his travel ban tirade Rider University President Dell Omo has finally gotten around to writing to the students about the situation.

While there is much fluff in his letter – what his letter does not say – is that it will declare Rider University a Sanctuary.  Indeed the key operating sentence of the Dell Omo letter is:

“While we must comply with federal requirements on immigration policies and adhere to all applicable law, we will work to maintain the privacy of our students and employees, and continue to admit students and hire faculty and staff without discrimination.”

That is the bottom line – compliance . . .

Many campuses are going much further and the AAUP since November has adopted taking that very position – they are declaring sanctuary.  

 https://www.aaup.org/issues/sanctuary-campus-movement

The impeccable source of Wikipedia describes a sanctuary university as having the following policies:

”From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sanctuary campus is any college or university in the United States that adopts policies to protect students who are undocumented immigrants. The term is modeled after "sanctuary city", a status that has been adopted by over 30 municipalities. Proposed policies on sanctuary campuses include:

·         Not allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers onto campus without a warrant.^[1]

·         The refusal of campus police to enforce immigration law.^[1]

·         Not sharing student immigration status with ICE.^[1]

·         Not gathering information on immigration or citizenship status.^[2]

·         Providing tuition support, including in-state tuition rates at public universities to students with DACA status.^[2]

·         Providing distance-learning options for deported students to complete their degrees.^[2]

·         Providing confidential legal support to students with immigration law questions and issues.^[2]

The American Association of University Professors endorsed the sanctuary campus movement on November 22, 2016, and urged colleges and universities to adopt sanctuary policies.^[3]”

This seems like reasonable policy.  The Rider students deserve more than a promise to “comply with federal requirements on immigration policies and adhere to all applicable law.”  In other words – ICE operations welcome at Rider – no warrant required!

Across the whole country and in NJ immigrant agents are knocking on doors, pulling people aside and taking people away.  It is just a matter of time before similar operations are attempted at Rider if a more forthright policy is not adopted by administration.

Dr. Dell Omo, please go back to the drawing board on this and come up with some serious challenges.  Explore the limits and look at the other campuses that are offering greater support to the community and model after them instead of hiding behind a vague law and order proclamation.