Campus Reform's Adam Ellwanger, who teaches at the University of Houston–Downtown (UHD), says though the guidance did not ask faculty to go against or defy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, it did seem "designed to delay their access to certain spaces within the university and to complicate identification of any particular person that agents may be seeking."
"UHD's documents assert that the 'principles' undergirding their recommendations are designed to 'ensure legal compliance while protecting the rights and privacy of students, faculty, staff, and administrators.' But regardless of where one stands on the issue of immigration enforcement, these guidelines – which are neither 'legal advice' nor official university policy – place faculty and staff in a very difficult position," Ellwanger points out.
The page was removed from UHD's website earlier this month.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), says it was a problematic "knee-jerk reaction" from the university.
"What they were essentially doing was setting up one set of rules that they would follow for local police or other law enforcement agencies and a different set of rules for ICE," she submits. "What that implies is that immigration enforcement is somehow not legitimate or not important or something that must be resisted, which is, first of all, contrary to the law and common sense."
She points out that most people want immigration laws to be enforced fairly, and ICE's priority right now is "the worst go first."
The only time an individual is arrested on a college campus is when he or she poses a threat to others, and Vaughan figures the number of immigration arrests made on college campuses every year can be counted on one hand.
"It's kind of silly in reality," she says of the guidance.
In the long run, she says this kind of "fear mongering" is counterproductive to the university community because they are creating fear where it should not exist.
Though the guidance was "walked back very quickly," the CIS director believes it says a lot about the ideological biases of university administrators. It was nearly identical to that offered by Northern Illinois University, and according to Campus Reform, these are not the only institutions to offer advice on how to interact with ICE.
