A guiding belief at UCLA is that students and educators belong to a community of diverse scholars. Together our Bruin community serves as a global leader advancing knowledge and tackling societal needs in an inclusive learning and working environment. These professed ideals are more important now than ever. Throughout the election campaign, Donald Trump has advocated aggressive and punitive measures against undocumented immigrants. Now his election as president presents significant challenges for our campus community. Our students, staff, campus employees, and their families are the targets of vitriol and hate crimes. Many people feel under siege and live in fear of deportation. President-elect Trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from the United States and end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which currently provides deportation relief for undocumented youth and grants authorization to work in the US. These attacks on immigrants and their families are an affront to our entire UCLA community.

We, the undersigned faculty, petition the university to immediately develop protocol for making itself a sanctuary for undocumented students, staff, workers, and their families. In doing so, we join universities and colleges across the country, including UC Berkeley, UT Austin, Michigan, and Wisconsin, in taking concrete steps to ensure a safe and secure environment for education, research, and service.

Recently, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has unequivocally stated its unwillingness to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on immigration status and made clear that the LAPD does not support the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation efforts. In the wake of President-Elect Trump’s pledge to remove millions of people from the US, 741,500 of which are DACA youth, we strongly encourage the Academic Senate and University administrators to develop actionable steps to ensure UCLA provides a safe haven for undocumented members of our campus community.

We encourage the university to take the following concrete actions:

• Reaffirm the university’s commitment to support and protect all of its students and workers, regardless of their citizenship status, religion, ethnicity, or national origin;

• Reaffirm current admission and financial aid policies regarding undocumented students;

• Reaffirm the university’s policy to not cooperate with federal ICE authorities regarding deportations or immigration raids and assure the entire UCLA community that Campus Police will continue its standing practice of not engaging in helping the federal government with deportations or inquiring as to the immigration status of students;

• Reaffirm the university’s commitment to create a campus atmosphere of respect by denouncing the hate speech directed at immigrant, minority, and LGBTQ students and workers, and by informing the campus of existing resources for reporting and responding to bias or hate incidents;

• Provide strictly confidential counseling services for undocumented students, DACA recipients, staff, workers, and their families regarding their situation;

• Provide and expand legal services for undocumented students, staff, workers, and their families

We, the undersigned, believe the Trump administration’s proposed immigration policies pose a grave threat to UCLA’s mission of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Given these dire circumstances, we urge continued conversation and concrete action from the Academic Senate and UCLA administration.

Sincerely,

Lauren Duquette-Rury, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Roger Waldinger, Distinguished Professor of Sociology
Director, Center for the Study of International Migration

Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Professor of Education
Associate Director, Center for the Study of International Migration

Ingrid Eagly, Professor of Law

Helga Leitner, Professor of Geography

Ruben Hernandez-Leon, Professor of Sociology

Margaret Peters, Assistant Professor of Political Science

Rashmita Mistry, Professor of Education

Gail Kligman, Professor of Sociology

Lieba Faier, Associate Professor of Geography

David K. Yoo, Vice Provost & Professor Institute of American Cultures

Laurie Kain Hart, Professor of Anthropology

Kyeyoung Park, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies

Jamie Goodwin-White, Assistant Professor of Geography

MarySue V. Heilemann, Associate Professor of Nursing

Steven Wallace, Professor and Chair of Community Health Sciences

Patricia Gándara, Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project

Vilma Ortiz, Professor of Sociology

Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies

Leisy Abrego, Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies Department

Karida Brown, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, UCLA Wasserman Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education

Shannon Speed, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies

Michael A. Rodriguez, Professor and Vice Chair of Family Medicine

Min Zhou, Professor of Sociology

Carola Suárez-Orozco, Professor of Human Development and Psychology

Paul Ong, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare and Asian American Studies

Patricia Greenfield, Distinguished Professor of Psychology