BY HENRY REICHMAN

On Thursday, May 18, California State University, Los Angeles student and immigration rights activist Claudia Rueda was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents as she moved her family’s car outside their home. Federal agents had detained Rueda’s mother earlier this month. The following statement on her detention was released today by the California Faculty Association (CFA), an AAUP affiliate:

It is absolutely unacceptable that one of our vibrant, activist students was detained by immigration officials, and in what appears to be a retaliatory manner for her courage in advocating on behalf of her family and other immigrants.

News of Claudia’s detention by Border Patrol has cut through Cal State LA community swiftly, and in its wake has left students and faculty deeply disturbed and afraid. One of Claudia’s professors worried that the arrest of Claudia’s mother would delay or end Claudia’s educational pursuits, and noted ‘That threat seems even more likely today as she sits in a detention center, facing expulsion from the country where she has lived since the age of four.’

‘Her detention has spread trauma and fear across our campus. Claudia is the second student to be picked up by immigration officers this week in East Los Angeles. Many Cal State LA students and employees no longer feel safe on and around campus.’

As a university system, we need to do everything we can to protect our students, staff, and faculty from these abhorrent threats and trauma. That’s why CFA sponsored legislation authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, AB 21, which would protect undocumented students in the CSU and the state’s community colleges. We need the CSU Board of Trustees to support this critical legislation, and take action on behalf of Claudia and her family.

We cannot, and will not, sit by and watch as our students’ or colleagues’ safety and futures are jeopardized by the senseless and heartless directives of the Trump administration. We will continue to exercise our First Amendment rights, and will fight any who attempt to take that right from our students or us. We stand unwavering in our commitment to all of our students, regardless of their immigration status, and we strongly urge Chancellor Tim White, the CSU Board of Trustees, and CSU presidents and officials to do the same.