BY HANK REICHMAN

In a small victory for the sanctuary movement, recruiters from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) won’t have a booth at the Rutgers University-Newark Government and Public Service Fair.  Students from RU Dreamers, a group for undocumented immigrants and their allies, organized an online “ICE is not welcome here” petition calling on the university to withdraw its invitation to the agency to recruit applicants at the fair.  “This is disturbing and unacceptable,” said the petition. “Career fairs are intended to promote an inclusive environment for all RU students. This decision would alienate students from access to academic and professional opportunities.”

Rutgers administrators did not withdraw the invitation but the agency voluntarily withdrew from participation.  “After conversation with Rutgers-Newark student affairs leadership, the local ICE legal research office concluded that their presence at the career fair at this point would run counter to their goals to recruit students at this event and to the spirit of the event, so they withdrew from participation,” Peter Englot, Rutgers-Newark’s senior vice chancellor for public affairs and chief of staff, told nj.com.

The Rutgers AAUP-AFT has been at the forefront of efforts to make the university a sanctuary campus.  In September 2017, the union passed a resolution that, among other things, called on Rutgers President Robert Barchi “to reaffirm his commitment to sanctuary by offering material and legal support to all Rutgers students whose immigration status is threatened.”  On December 9, Rutgers AAUP-AFT officers David Hughes and Deepa Kumar wrote union members to commend President Barchi for adopting “measures equal to those of the declared ‘sanctuary campuses.’”  “Rutgers is and will always be a sanctuary that supports and enables their [undocumented students’] education, intellectual growth, and personal well-being,” Barchi wrote.  Barchi also has written in support of continuing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that extends protections to students brought to the country illegally as children.

In November 2016, the AAUP Council passed a resolution, “The Atmosphere on Campus in the Wake of the Elections,” which said:

We support the movement for sanctuary campuses. While colleges and universities must obey the law, administrations must make all efforts to guarantee the privacy of immigrant students and pledge not to grant access to information that might reveal their immigration status unless so ordered by a court of law. Nor should colleges and universities gather information about the citizenship or immigration status of people who have interactions with the administration, including with campus police. College and university police should not themselves participate in any efforts to enforce immigration laws, which are under federal jurisdiction. Faculty members should join efforts to resist all attempts to intimidate or inappropriately investigate undocumented students or to deny them their full rights to due process and a fair hearing.

Although ICE participation in a job fair would not specifically violate these guidelines, their presence would no doubt have been intimidating to many and certainly raised concern about the breadth of the university’s commitment.  the efforts by the RU Dreamers and those who signed their petition should therefore be commended.

Arrests by ICE have increased dramatically since President Donald Trump took office. In New Jersey, arrests increased by 42 percent last year, among the biggest jumps in the country.

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