BUZZ
‘[E]ven if the rest of the country is totally crazy, they’ll be safe when they’re at UMD’
Far-left University of Maryland groups are demanding school administrators declare UMD a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrant students, and that they do not cooperate with any Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
A petition created by UMD’s Young Democratic Socialists of America claims the Trump administration — “empowered by an unaccountable executive branch” — is “escalating its attacks on vulnerable populations” via “armed and masked thugs in plain clothes” who are “kidnapping people […] for speaking out against genocide or simply for speaking a different language.”
The petition also notes UMD “silently took down” all webpages associated with the campus Immigrant and Undocumented Student Life Office, “submitted aggregate data” about Chinese international students in response to a “strongly worded letter” from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and renamed the Office of Diversity & Inclusion to “Belonging & Community at UMD.”
Groups backing the YDSA include UMD Students for Justice in Palestine, United Academics of Maryland-University of Maryland, Animals 4 Animals, UMD College Democrats, and Indigenous at UMD.
In addition to the “sanctuary” campus demand and non-cooperation with ICE, the petition wants students to “immediately” be alerted if/when ICE is on campus, and the restoration of the Immigrant and Undocumented Student Life Office’s webpages.
The YDSA’s Nick Cosgrove told the student paper The Diamondback “I just want people to feel that even if the rest of the country is totally crazy, they’ll be safe when they’re at UMD.”
United Academics of Maryland’s Jade Olson, a clinical communications professor, said UMD becoming a “sanctuary” campus is important “morally and practically.” She added “I can’t do my job if my students are afraid to come to class.”
Postdoctoral History Dept. Fellow Gerson Rosales, who researches “migration, racial formation, Latine identity, refugee politics, and transnational social movements” according to his faculty page, noted that declaring a “sanctuary” campus could result in a loss of federal grant monies and the deployment of federal agents to UMD.
But for freshman Annabelle Hurley, a YDSA member, establishing a “sanctuary” is worth it: “I think that it’s honestly a necessary risk we need to take because of how severe the damage ICE is causing.”
This past Wednesday, the YDSA hosted a rally at the campus’ Hornbake Plaza and subsequent march to the administration building to deliver its demands to UMD President Darryll Pines.
Currently, the YDSA petititon has 2,920 signatures out of a requested 3,200.
MORE: Students, faculty continue call for ‘sanctuary campuses’ despite resistance from leadership
