University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Petition for Sanctuary Campus

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, there are approximately 14,000 DACA beneficiary students in Wisconsin public institutions, and approximately 300 undocumented and/or DACA beneficiary students currently here at UW-Milwaukee. Come next semester, as a result of the policies proposed by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, 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 ask that you, as administrative leadership:

-Insist on UW-Milwaukee’s maintaining commitment to diversity and inclusiveness
-Provide legal services to all students, especially for the undocumented
-Assign an administrative resource center with the responsibility of counseling undocumented and DACA beneficiary students on their education status on a strictly confidential basis with financial support from UW-Milwaukee student segregated fees
-Provide specific training for staff, faculty, and counselors on the needs of undocumented, DACA beneficiary, and marginalized students
-In event of arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, or due to student reluctance to travel to or appear on campus, have arrangements in place for online continuation of their degree programs
-*Prevent UW-Milwaukee’s Police Department from cooperating with Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE), Custom Border Patrol (CBP),United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) agents unless a warrant is presented.
-Protect student, alumni, and community member records from law enforcement unless a legal process is in place
-Provide guidance in job and scholarship opportunities to students if DACA were to be repealed
-Create a policy to protect the disenfranchised communities that have been targeted in the past few months due to the president-elect’s campaign. This policy would punish hate speech, bullying, and harassment specifically based on race, gender, sexual-orientation, origin, and legal status.
-Publish a press release in support of undocumented, international, and all marginalized students that goes beyond campus to reach the Milwaukee community and families of students

*The establishment of a sanctuary campus is not without precedent or legal justification. A 2011 memorandum outlines that U.S ICE officers are subject to certain restrictions in regards to places of worship, schools, and hospitals.

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 new 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, as well as those of color, women, LGBTQ+, Muslim and Jewish communities, amongst other marginalized groups. We ask 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.”

Solidarity