The ICE impact on campus

Welcome back! It’s been a head-spinning news week in terms of administrative action, so let’s dive in!

Talk about this

No. 1: Immigration’s empty seats

 Some K-12 school districts report that classroom attendance is significantly down: “From New York to Los Angeles, Chicago and Denver, school districts have reported students staying home in fear that they or their parents could be deported.” (USA TODAY)

Questions:

• Talk to professors and academic advisers to see if there’s any such effect on your campus. 

• How are international students responding/feeling? Are they worried or do they feel confident in their ability to study in the U.S. without issue?

• Does your school keep stats on how many students might be studying or working at the university without full citizenship? How might you visualize that information if you got it?

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that in 2023, foreign-born workers, including undocumented people, made up almost 20% of the U.S. labor force — about 29 million people. Which begs the question … 

• Is there any department at your university that might potentially hire undocumented workers? How might that happen? (If you know of any student reporting on this kind of thing, please let me know!) 

• It’s not implausible! The Center for Migration Studies, along with other groups, believes that “as many as 8.3 million undocumented immigrants work in the U.S. economy, or 5.2 percent of the workforce … work in construction (1.5 million), restaurants (1 million), agriculture and farms (320,000), landscaping (300,000) …” What university doesn’t employ construction crews, food service workers and landscapers? 

• Remember to walk your students through best practices of dealing with vulnerable people when reporting on these kinds of stories. El Tímpano from California’s Bay Area has some great resources for transparency and safety. (I’ll also link below in the resources section). 

Related: Know your immigration cards

Green cards: Allow you to live and work permanently in the United States.

Gold cards: Just $5 million could buy you citizenship.

Red cards: A credit card-sized rights document, produced by The Immigrant Legal Resource Center which says, “All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.” 

No. 2: The AP fights back

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