Now that it’s been a week since Donald Trump was elected president, students on college campuses are worried about the status of undocumented immigrants fearing mass deportations.
Students at Harvard University have started a petition to the school’s administration to protect undocumented students and devote resources to assisting those particular students by hiring additional staff.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the petition has garnered over 4,000 signatures demanding their campus be a sanctuary to their undocumented classmates.
The President-elect campaigned on a tough immigration agenda, promising to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants and building a wall along the U.S. Mexico border. In a recent 60 Minutes interview, however, Trump admitted that he would deport mainly “the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers,” which, by his estimation, amounts to about two to three million undocumented immigrants.
“We do not need words of comfort, your pity, or your sympathy,” the petition reads. “We need action that demonstrates this University’s dedication to concretely support all of its students, regardless of their immigration status.”
Of the petition’s many demands, its top priority is to hire a new Assistant Dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to replace Emelyn A. dela Peña, who left Harvard last month. They’re also looking to create an office to assist and support undocumented immigrants on campus.
“Harvard’s policies have supported all our students at both the college and professional schools to make certain they can fully participate in, and access all, that Harvard has to offer,” University spokesman David Cameron said in a statement. “We are following developments in Washington closely and will be engaged in these core issues.”
Harvard isn’t the only school looking to create a “sanctuary campus,” their main rival, Yale, is also joining forces with them garnering more than 2,000 signatures for a similar petition. Students at Brown, Johns Hopkins, Oberlin, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have pushed for protection of undocumented immigrants as well.
While Trump has softened his stance a bit on mass deportation, the progressive left has no respect for the rule of law.
