By ALICE B. LLOYD, Weekly Standard
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, many colleges and universities vowed to become “sanctuary campuses” for students in the country illegally. The matter will take on a special urgency in the event that soon-to-be President Trump repeals the executive-ordered Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which “deferred” the enforcement of immigration laws for those who came here as children.
The practical consequences of a “sanctuary campus” policy remain murky (as is often the case when college administrators take direction from student protesters). Will openly harboring illegal aliens jeopardize colleges’ federal funding, for instance? In an age of funding-backed executive overreach puppeteering campus policy, it would be dangerous to assume otherwise.
Asked whether an agenda-driven Trump administration could weaponize the federal agency against sanctuary campuses, the American Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess said, “The attorney general or Department of Education could declare them ineligible [for grants and federal aid]… Presumably.” Given the stated priorities of the incoming administration and the Obama administration’s pattern of funding-backed agency mandates to circumvent Congress, it’s no doubt a solid presumption.
The idea for a “sanctuary campus” follows from the sanctuary city concept. At least 200 cities, currently refuse to prosecute illegal aliens for immigration violations, even though failure to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement puts them at odds with federal law. In so doing they risk losing their flow of federal money, assuming incoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions does, in fact, mean business—and assuming President-Elect Trump makes good on a campaign promise to cut them off. Colleges may risk the same in designating themselves sanctuaries.
