Chancellor Girod:

On the morning of Friday, February 27, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents were observed detaining an individual outside the Ambler Recreation Center at the University of Kansas (KU). This report was confirmed by Sanctuary Alliance, and it was acknowledged by International Student Services. This increased presence exemplifies an emboldened strategy to move operations closer to campus. Across KU, students are becoming increasingly anxious as these reports multiply not only in Lawrence but also at universities throughout the country.

As such, I am reaching out with some demands for you and other university administrators at KU. We demand that the university declare campus a sanctuary from ICE and denounce these harmful pursuits on campus, in Lawrence, and at higher education institutions at large. To become a sanctuary campus, we demand that university administration implement the following measures: (1) limit campus access and university resources, such as campus police, from ICE without a judicial warrant; (2) refuse to share student data, including immigration status, with ICE; and (3) provide legal support and classroom accommodations for students. Additionally, we demand that the university labor with on-campus and off-campus organizations to protect targeted students.

You can witness, as I have, how ICE has diminished the dignity of undocumented immigrants in the community as well as Black and brown international and resident students at the university. You and other university administrators maintain the power to decide how students are governed on campus. And, unfortunately, your time is running out for the passive compliance in your avoidance approach to this federal administration and its agents. As anxiety intensifies, now is not the season for inaction but rather resistance.