Sanctuary Campuses – University Sedition
A David Horowitz Freedom Center Campaign
The so-called “sanctuary movement” is a concerted effort by left-wing administrations in major cities to thwart the purposes of the Patriot Act, undermine federal immigration law, and cripple the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security to protect American citizens from terrorist threats. It is also an effort by the Democratic Party to curry favor with a growing population of Hispanic voters by thwarting federal attempts to control illegal immigration and apprehend criminals who shouldn’t be in this country in the first place. Thanks to the efforts of leftwing activists and administrators, this seditious movement has now spread to our colleges and universities.
Organizing with growing fervor since the U.S. presidential elections, radical students across the country are pressuring university administrators to declare their schools “sanctuary campuses,” and the administrators, true to form, are falling into line. Close to 30 campuses have declared themselves “sanctuaries,” with dozens more now considering adopting this status as a result of an “escalation campaign” by student groups opposing the presidency of Donald Trump, and in particular his efforts to secure America’s borders and deport criminals who have entered the country illegally.
Columbia University is one of those proudly proclaiming that it is a sanctuary for illegals, with Provost John Coatsworth recently stating, “The University will neither allow immigration officials on our campus without a warrant nor share information on the immigration status of students…”
Timothy P. White, Chancellor of the California State University system, says that the 23 campuses under his control “will not enter into agreements with state or local law enforcement agencies, Homeland Security or any other federal department.” And University of California President Janet Napolitano, after prohibiting campus police from cooperating with federal immigration officials, has awarded $5 million to enhance access to funding and other aid for the hundreds of illegal immigrants now attending UC schools.
While the mounting pressure for sanctuary campuses is in some sense the latest development in a seditious “social justice” agenda sweeping higher education, it is different from other left-wing movements in that it has direct and serious implications for national security. Would a sanctuary campus forbid the FBI and ICE from investigating a student suspected of terrorist activities, for instance? Would it prohibit these agencies from trying to find out what campus resources such a student had access to? Or the networks he or she had built in furtherance of a possible terror plot?
This is a situation that cannot be allowed to stand. If the illegal immigrant’s first act on American soil is to break U.S. law, these university administrators are extending that lawlessness into society’s most important intellectual institutions. That is why the David Horowitz Freedom Center is launching a campaign to bring public attention to the disloyalty of university administrators who have shown contempt not only for federal immigration law but the rule of law itself in appeasing radical immigration activists’ demands for sanctuary campuses. This campaign will call for a withdrawal of federal grants from universities that embrace this seditious principle. It will also call for the prosecution of those administrators, like UC President Napolitano, who have put in place measures that prohibit campus authorities from cooperating with federal immigration officials and enforcing existing federal laws.
This campaign will make the case through pamphlets, through posters, and through events and ads in campus papers arguing that “sanctuary campuses” are seditious and a threat to the security of Americans. We will press the case to legislators in the states where sanctuary campuses are located and particularly to those sitting on Higher Education committees.
The Freedom Center’s strike against sanctuary campuses will be a guerrilla campaign in which our activists will put up posters throughout these campuses calling out by name and portraying the likenesses of administrators who are responsible for these lawless policies and attempts to subvert the authority of the federal government.
The Center effectively used such a postering campaign this past year to put pressure on individual students and faculty who support the terrorist propaganda of Hamas and other Middle East terror groups. These campaigns resulted in campus turmoil that became the subject of local and national news stories that shined a bright light on the activities of anti- Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American groups. This new campaign against the enablers of sanctuary campuses will do the same thing, making university administrators’ subversion of immigration law a matter of public concern and discussion. Hopefully, it will also galvanize trustees, alumni and attorneys general to take action against these developments. The administrators and their radical student allies will inevitably react to our campaign and make “sanctuary campuses” a national news story involving the American public whose taxes underwrite most of these institutions.
For more information about the campaign or to participate on your campus, please contact [email protected].