We — the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Milwaukee community members and organizers — call for our campus under your administrative leadership to reaffirm the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Guiding Value of diversity by declaring and implementing a plan to protect our students, staff, and community members as thoroughly as possible. We specifically ask for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to be declared a sanctuary campus for undocumented and DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals) beneficiary students, as well as all other marginalized and targeted groups of students.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, as of 2019 there are approximately 4,000 DACA beneficiary students in Wisconsin institutions, and approximately 300 undocumented and/or DACA beneficiary students currently here at UW-Milwaukee. As a result of the policies recently proposed by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, we may see mass arrests, imprisonments, and deportations of students who have lived the majority of their lives in the United States and have been educated in American classrooms. This has prompted terror for our students and their families, and it is now a crucial time to defend the protective policies that are anticipated to end under their executive order.

We demand that UW-Milwaukee release a public statement to the campus and wider Milwaukee community identifying as a sanctuary campus and declaring support for undocumented students, international students, and all marginalized students and will affirm this commitment with the following changes in policy:

1. UWM PD will not enter into any agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and will not in any way cooperate or assist federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration law—including providing student documentation status—or any efforts to carry out deportations unless legally required to do so, providing full transparency in those instances.

2. UWM will not cooperate voluntarily with any federal effort to create a registry of individuals based on protected characteristics such as religion, national origin, race or sexual orientations.

3. UWM will refuse voluntary information sharing with ICE/CBP/local police departments working with ICE across all aspects of the college/university to the fullest extent possible under the law.

4. UWM PD will utilize the Emergency Alert program to notify students of any expected/active efforts on or near campus to carry out deportations and enforce federal immigration law.

5. In the event of arrest, imprisonment, deportation, or student reluctance to travel to or appear on campus, UWM advisors will work with students for online continuation of their degree programs.

6. UndocuAlly trainings will become mandatory training for all faculty and staff who interact with students.

7. UWM will support student-led organizing by providing additional institutional support and funding for the student organizations advocating for immigrant rights.

Our demands are supported by established precedent and legal framework. Comparable sanctuary campus policies have already been adopted by numerous other universities, including the University of California, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Denver, and Harvard University, among numerous others. We demand that UWM take every measure possible, including but not limited to the demands listed above, to protect the students on their campus despite these directives.

As the most diverse university in the UW system—one of the top campuses for serving LGBTQ+ students in the nation, a proud institution of high international enrollment, and considering the previous initiative to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution—it is our duty to provide a safe and accepting campus for our undocumented students, staff, and community members. Further, the university must protect those of color, women, LGBTQ+, Muslim and Jewish communities, and other marginalized groups. We demand that UW-Milwaukee supports all students in pursuit of higher education. As stated by Chancellor Mone, “No matter our socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, race, gender, ethnicity, political beliefs, education, faith, sexual orientation, age, or national origin - we are unified by being of a learning community.”