UA student groups demand ‘sanctuary campus’ status, ban on ICE

The student group UA Resist, in collaboration with FORCE (Feminists Organized to Resist, Create and Empower), UA Students for Socialism, United Campus Workers Arizona, the Student Union, the National Lawyers Guild Chapter at the UA, UA Planned Parenthood Generation Action and DeFlock Tucson, is demanding that Garimella and the UA Office of General Counsel:

• Write a statement of commitment that bars ICE and CBP from campus and campus-affiliated spaces, including Banner University Medical Center and UA student housing;

• Refuse to share university records and other information about UA students with DHS, and by extension with ICE and CBP;

• Create and distribute “classroom toolkits” and conduct regular departmental trainings with information on what to do during ICE raids;

• Remove all security cameras and facial recognition technologies such as Flock Safety’s Automated License Plate Readers, which are present on campus and “track movements without a warrant;”

• Ban DHS from participating in any job fairs at the UA;

• Abolish the National Center for Border Security and Immigration or BORDERS in UA’s Eller College of Management;

• Protect undocumented and documented students and workers from ICE arrests or “kidnappings,” in the words of the student groups, and offer free legal representation for UA students and workers targeted by ICE.

The Arizona Daily Star could not immediately reach UA officials for a response.

UA Resist said in a letter to Garimella and UA’s Office of General Counsel on Monday, Oct. 12, “The UA community is inundated with surveillance of our daily lives.”

“Students cannot attend classes, let alone live, without fear,” the letter said. “... We, the undersigned coalition of campus and Tucson groups, ask that the UA administration accept their responsibility to protect our communities from DHS, ICE, and CBP brutality.”

The letter asked the UA administration to respond by Friday, Oct. 23.

The campaign also includes a petition the student organizations plan to circulate.

In September 2025, University of Arizona Police Chief Chris Olson told the Star that the Flock Safety license plate reader system strengthens his department's ability to maintain “a safe and secure campus environment.” 

“Operated under established protocols that comply with privacy laws and regulations, records are deleted after 30 days,” Olson said then. “Third-party access to the data is prohibited without prior approval from UAPD or a court order.”

The UA did not clarify at the time which, if any, law enforcement agencies had prior approval to access data or if there were any court orders to access data collected by Flock cameras on campus.

What is a ‘sanctuary campus’?

Traditionally, the concept of a “sanctuary campus” points to a college or university that has instituted policies to protect undocumented students from deportation.

Universities including Portland State University, Morehouse College in Georgia, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the California State University and University of California systems, and Long Beach City College in California have all either adopted the official “sanctuary campus” or “safe campus” designation, or implemented policies and features of being a sanctuary but shied away from the label, according to a Campus Reform article in 2025.

Luz Rodriguez, director of campus engagement with the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, told the Star in August that a “sanctuary campus” or “safe campus” isn’t a legal designation and there’s no uniform definition or set of policies attached to the phrase. The Presidents’ Alliance is an alliance of American college and university leaders “dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact our students, campuses and communities.”

Rodriguez said a university declaring itself a sanctuary campus doesn’t mean it can refuse to comply with all federal and legal immigration authorities, since they still have to follow state and federal laws and respond to valid warrants, court orders, subpoenas and other legally enforceable requests. However, this status can mean that such requests are to be reviewed by the appropriate legal or administrative personnel before any information is disclosed, she said.

Mara Short, a member of UA Resist, told the Star she isn’t able to speak with as much legal knowledge, but she thinks immigration officers can be barred from non-public areas such as dorms or medical centers if they don’t have a warrant.

She said the UA Resist hopes to get information from other universities that have adopted sanctuary status to see where they can specifically stop ICE or CBP from entering.

Short said UA Resist took advice from the Sanctuary Campus Network, a coalition of students, faculty, and staff organizing for sanctuary campuses nationwide. She recounted UA Resist’s list of demands and said it’s possible and legal for the UA to not collaborate in ways that they don’t have to, and that “ICE and CBP do not need to be able to come on our campus.”

Rodriguez said the Presidents' Alliance “generally does not encourage use of the term ‘sanctuary campus’ because it has no consistent legal definition and may create confusion or unrealistic expectations about what an institution can legally and practically do.”

Short said the UA student organizations want the university to take on the label, but instituting the procedures in place is the most important thing.

“We would like to see (the label) because I think the more you declare a safe space, the safer the students can feel, and the more we can speak that aloud,” she said. She said, “even though the call for a sanctuary campus sometimes is symbolic, we are issuing specific demands and we’re actually aiming for there to not be any confusion about what we’re asking this to mean.”

Inspired by Sanctuary Movement

Mara Short, a member of UA Resist, told the Star in an interview that their organization was inspired by Tucson’s role in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, where it started a movement in the U.S. to provide aid and shelter to immigrants and war refugees.

She said they also heard from students today about their concerns about ICE enforcement and presence in Tucson.

“For us, it seemed like the most important thing we could do right now, because we’re a Hispanic-Serving Institution where we’re a school that has a lot of students that might be vulnerable to ICE and CBP,” Short said.

“Our campus is supposed to be a place of learning and of safety, and students across the country have been terrified of going to school, have not been able to take their opportunities, because of the fear of ICE ... and it’s a really scary time.”

She also referenced UA Faculty Chair Leila Hudson’s supportive comments about the concept of a “sanctuary campus,” and said the groups hope to have faculty backing as well as support from undergraduate and graduate student body organizations.

Hudson told the Star in August that she likes the idea of the university becoming a “sanctuary campus” as a safe space for all, local or international and from all kinds of statuses, origins and identities, and said ICE has no place on campus.

Short said the student groups also want to connect with Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, as well as with undergraduate and graduate student body organizations at the UA, on this campaign.

‘Federal ire’ a risk

Mark Stegeman, a UA associate professor of economics, told the Star in August that Arizona has “strict statutes barring substantive interference with federal immigration enforcement, including on university campuses.” Thus, any declaration of the UA being a sanctuary campus would be “mostly performative” or would create legal risks for the university and its faculty, he said.

“By drawing federal ire, such a declaration would probably hurt more students than it would help,” Stegeman said then. The UA depends heavily on federal research funding.

“Most faculty members support vigorous defense of free speech and academic freedom, principles with stronger legal foundations, but on immigration, it makes more sense simply to help and support students who feel targeted," Stegeman said. 

Short said that while calling the UA a sanctuary campus might get the notice of the federal government, she said universities aren’t supposed to be controlled by the government.