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Dear administration: protect undocumented people now or change motto

There is no debating it: we are in a time of crisis, and complacency is deadly. This moment, more than any other we can remember, requires immediate action “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.” Students can sign the DREAM Team’s petition calling on the University to protect undocumented people, and participate in the walk-out and gathering in front of Nassau Hall happening today (Thursday, Nov. 17). Administrators, meanwhile, should also make good on the promise of the University’s motto by implementing the DREAM Team’s recommendations outlined below and in the online petition.

Undocumented students, workers, and residents in the Princeton community both on and off campus currently face direct threats to their lives and communities. Thanks to the election of Donald Trump, proponents of the ugliest forms of outright racism and nativism are now empowered to raid homes, separate families, and indefinitely lock people up in abusive detention centers without access to medical care, legal counsel, or family contact. Trump has made clear that he intends to make good on his promise to deport or incarcerate up to three million undocumented immigrants. As his inauguration looms, the individuals and communities already most vulnerable to structural and interpersonal violence — refugees from war-zones, undocumented queer and trans people, Latinx families, black and brown migrants — are now thrust into a situation of far greater precariousness and danger.

Every one of us in the University community needs to immediately acknowledge the urgency of resisting Trump’s immigration policies in every possible way. The optimistic responses to Trump’s victory have invariably come from those who by virtue of their race, gender, class, or citizenship status are safe from the violence advocated by Trump and his supporters. “He’ll tone it down now that he’s President,” they say, or “there are checks in place.” Such responses are not only naïvely out of touch but also legitimately dangerous, particularly for undocumented people living in the US, given Trump’s executive authority on matters of immigration.

With or without the support of the Republican-controlled Congress, Trump can immediately unilaterally direct the Department of Homeland Security to ramp up deportations. And all it would take to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is the support of a Congress in the hands of his own party — a course of action hardly necessary for mass deportations given that the number of ICE agents more than doubled from 2,710 to 6,338 just between 2003 and 2012 under Bush and Obama.

Furthermore, Trump’s claim that he will target “criminals” only reflects the sheer intensity of his willfully ignorant racism. This is a man who characterized a group of people — who are statistically far less likely than the US-born population to commit crimes — as “criminals, drug drealers, rapists.”

Virtues like truth or trustworthiness matter little to him. Many believe that he is “almost certain” to revoke the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a power that lies completely in his own hands, thus jeopardizing the lives and futures of young people seeking education and employment.

In response to such a crisis, complacency is deadly. The incoming presidency immediately and deeply threatens marginalized groups across our society, from Muslims to women to LGBT individuals to people of color to poor communities, and consequently there are countless battles to be waged by all members of society. However, the task of helping to protect undocumented people is a collective duty in which the University as an institution is uniquely well-equipped to participate, because there are a number of concrete steps that the University can immediately take that would significantly contribute to this cause. The Princeton DREAM Team has already outlined the specific actions that the University should take in their online petition.

First, the Princeton administration should declare the University a sanctuary campus for undocumented students and residents by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and proclaim the Princeton University Chapel a sanctuary church. Next, the University should discontinue misclassifying undocumented students as international students and remove the international tax for them. Finally, the University should provide resources to undocumented students, including hiring an employee in the Davis Center to serve undocumented students and students of undocumented or mixed-status families, starting a Dean’s Fund to cover the costs of reapplying for DACA/DAPA, and expediting changes to the University Office of Admission website on behalf of undocumented students.

Alejandra Rincon ’18, co-director of the DREAM Team and collaborator on the petition along with Maria Perales ’18 and Arlene Gamio ‘18, explained to me that the petition and walkout are efforts to “emphasize that Princeton advocate for the families of students that are affected” and that “this movement is for all the undocumented people who are scared of the uncertainty right now.” Sign the petition and participate in the walk-out happening today at 5 p.m. (Thursday, Nov. 17) to stand in solidarity with our peers, community members and undocumented people across the country.

We will soon learn whether our community’s adage is sincere or not. As the DREAM Team’s petition states: “We cannot be bystanders in the face of discrimination and hate when we pride ourselves as being ‘in the nation’s service and in the service of all humanity.’ We call for action.”

Max Grear ’18 is a Spanish and Portuguese major from Wakefield, R.I. He can be reached at mgrear@princeton.edu.

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