Since President Donald Trump took office this January, Immigration Customs Enforcement has intensified its campaign to deport undocumented people. Against this background, Oberlin students have continued and expanded advocacy in support of undocumented immigrants.
On Thursday, Nov. 6, Obies for Undocumented Inclusion held their semi-annual Undocually training in King Building. The event, which was attended by around 70 people, educated participants on policies and key terms relevant to undocu+ people. Undocu+ refers not just to people who are undocumented, but to those whose immigration status is tenuous or who come from families with mixed immigration status.
OUI members provided updates on recent changes to immigration policy, including the suspension of new DACA applicants; the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling which allows for profiling based on the language someone speaks, employment status, and their appearance; and the end of temporary protected status for Venezuelans. They talked about how students can support undocu+ people in their community through self-education, active listening, and reporting ICE, and discussed initiatives that support immigrants at the College and across Lorain County, including El Centro Volunteer Initiative, which provides services to Latinx people in the County, and OUI’s Undocufund, which provides financial support to undocumented students for necessities and emergencies.
OUI also spoke about their advocacy for College policies that better support undocumented members of the Oberlin community. Last spring, OUI presented the College with four demands.
They demanded that Oberlin: “1) Revitalize and disseminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Procedure with Oberlin College students, staff, and faculty; 2) Train all existing staff and faculty members in the needs and experiences of undocu+ students, respective to their occupational responsibilities; 3) Establish clear and accessible pathways to employment for undocumented students, both during and after Oberlin, ensuring they have the same opportunities as their peers; 4) Provide comprehensive financial aid to undocumented students.”
OUI met with President Carmen Twillie Ambar last spring, which College second-year and OUI board member Laura Sanchez described as largely unproductive. She said the organization has a tentative meeting with Assistant Vice President and Dean of Intercultural Engagement Kyle Williams in December to discuss these demands again.
“It’s really frustrating that … they want to have a meeting in December when the semester is over,” Sanchez said. “But even though we are taking slow steps with administration, we still see them as steps because looking back at 10 years ago, OUI didn’t have the opportunity to meet with administrators or talk to administrators.”
Williams wrote in a statement to the Review that the College was addressing the concerns raised by OUI.
“Since being made aware of OUI’s demands, I have worked, and continue to work with, my staff and campus leadership to address OUI’s demands directly, including having regular contact with student leaders, their advisors, and attending student organization meetings,” Williams wrote.
Specifically, Williams mentioned the College is offering training workshops for faculty and staff, has published guidelines for dealing with government law enforcement agencies on campus, and has an FAQ bulletin on the CIE website explaining resources available for undocumented, DACA, and international students and how students and faculty should navigate legal obligations.
The protocol for dealing with federal immigration enforcement was another topic that OUI addressed during the Undocually training. Most of the group’s instructions come from the guidelines mentioned by Williams which were prepared by the General Counsel and released in a statement on the Oberlin website last February. The guidelines say that students should promptly call the General Counsel’s office and direct immigration officials to Cox Administration Building.
OUI members added that students should not talk to or disclose any information to ICE and should report ICE through one of the available hotlines. OUI also noted that, due to Oberlin’s Sanctuary City policy, Oberlin Police are forbidden from cooperating with immigration enforcement unless required to do so by law. Campus Safety similarly will not assist immigration enforcement unless legally required.
Professor Emeritus of History Stephen Volk, who is vice chair of the board of the local nonprofit Oberlin Community Supporting Immigrants, criticized the College’s policy, which he described as the “bare minimum.”
“I don’t think you have an effective protection of our community until the community is educated and organized,” he said. “And you can’t do that simply by saying, if you see law enforcement send them to the Cox building.”
Besides advocating their demands to the administration, Sanchez said a major goal this semester was to expand their connections with other organizations. OUI participated in a teach-in ahead of this fall’s Board of Trustees meeting along with Oberlin Democratic Socialists and Students for a Free Palestine.
Sanchez said working with other groups could help widen the scope of their advocacy.
“A lot of people think that OUI is very Latinx-heavy, and this is feedback that we have heard from other orgs too, which is kind of sad to hear because immigration is not just a Latine people issue,” Sanchez said.
The Undocually training included a section on how immigration enforcement disproportionately affects Black immigrants. OUI also sponsored a series of events this week related to Tanggoll Migrante, or the Defend Migrant Campaign, along with Asian American Alliance, the Politics and Art History departments, and the Multicultural Resource Center. Members of Tanggoll Migrante, a Filipino-led alliance dedicated to supporting immigrants, gave lectures in Hallock Auditorium and the Oberlin Public Library. Speakers described their efforts to connect detained Filipinos with resources and advocate for support from the Filipino consulate.
“Why I wanted to bring the people from this movement is [because] I wanted to broaden the scope of who is understood to be affected by the current ICE escalation and militarization of ICE,” College fourth-year and Asian American Alliance member Kisa Biely said. “It is definitely disproportionately affecting Latine people, but at the same time, so many people are being affected and so many people that we know — people that we know on campus that we would never suspect — are being affected.”
Other organizations on campus are also working to protect students from immigration enforcement.
Student Senate President Lily Gonzalez said the Senate is working toward organizing a “Know Your Rights campaign” that will distribute “red cards” from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center that list the constitutional rights people should know if they are stopped by federal agents.
The Oberlin ACLU Campus Action Team has been organizing a petition calling for Oberlin to reject any 287(g) agreements that could potentially deputize Campus Safety officers as ICE agents. So far they have received 550 signatures, College third-year and ACLU Campus Action Team Chair Matthew Grogan said.
“Our campus-wide 287(g) campaign is something we have initiated in accordance with a number of other Ohio colleges/ universities who are pushing for the same,” Grogan wrote in an email to the Review. “Further, we think Oberlin has a duty to uphold its long legacy as a progressive trendsetter, and recent communication about law enforcement has not been inspiring in that regard. We hope that in rejecting 287(g) agreements Oberlin can once more set the standard for other institutions in the state of Ohio.”
Grogan noted that while no schools in Ohio currently have formal 287(g) agreements, numerous towns and counties in the state, as well as institutions of higher education in other conservative-leaning states, have adopted these agreements.
OUI has also been in conversation with Oberlin Community Supporting Immigrants, a 501c(3) nonprofit that supports immigrants in Oberlin and Lorain County through connecting them with services and resources. In the past year, OCSI has built up a rapid response network. Through a hotline, which OUI shared at the Undocually training, students or community members can report immigration enforcement activity, and OCSI will send trained volunteers to document the operations, according to Volk. On Friday, Volk will lead the Rapid Response ICE Off-Campus event in Mudd Center, supported by the ACLU Campus Action Team. The event will educate attendees on the immigration system and discuss how rapid response networks work in small communities like Oberlin.
