We, the undersigned CUNY students, staff, and faculty demand that the CUNY administration provide a budget to:

(1) Immediately hire two permanent full-time staff members on every campus whose jobs are solely to support immigrant students
(2) Establish an Immigrant Student Success Center on all campuses that do not already have one with their own dedicated space.

The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented assault on immigrant communities across the country. In New York City, ICE is targeting neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, abducting people off the streets. The CUNY administration has put in place some critical protections and services, but you must do more now. CUNY must invest in students’ futures and ensure that a quality education is available to all students. This is the moment for the CUNY administration to increase your commitment to recruiting, protecting, and retaining immigrant students.

More than one third of CUNY students are immigrants and many are undocumented, yet only four CUNY Colleges (Brooklyn, John Jay, Hunter, and City College) have Immigrant Student Success Centers with dedicated, trained, full-time staff members and the resources needed to provide adequate services. There is a plan for a LaGuardia Community College Center but on campuses without Centers, the task of supporting students is added to a full-time staff member’s already full workload or a part-timer is paid to fill in. Crucially, there is no safe space on these campuses where students can—with confidence—speak with trained staff, let their guard down, and connect.

Despite the best efforts of current staff and faculty members at colleges without Centers, some immigrant and undocumented students are fearful and missing classes, falling behind academically, disengaging from campus life, and even dropping out, all of which will make them even more vulnerable. This is the time to allocate funds to meet the needs of CUNY’s immigrant students.