Imagine this: it’s Valentine’s Day, and you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed avoiding all the sickening couples when you stumble upon a bright pink Valentine’s card. The words are jarring:
“Roses are Red, Violets are Blue
Come here Illegally, and We’ll Deport You”
What’s even more jarring is the account the card is posted under: @thewhitehouse.
In the first week of Donald Trump’s presidency, he repealed policies barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from conducting school raids. Following the repeal, Metro Nashville Public Schools announced that they would not let them through the schoolyard gates easily. This attitude should ideally translate to Vanderbilt University, right?
To address one of the largest counterarguments, yes, allowing immigrants to enter the United States illegally infringes on our security. Yes, that should not go without consequence. However, this is not the whole picture. The work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been called barbaric for the conditions of their detention facilities, and the wider scoped plans of the Trump Administration further cause grave concerns for the future — considering our past. Such plans have already come to fruition, from the closing of CBP One — a mobile app that allowed migrants to apply for legal entry across the border — to canceling travel plans for refugees, even turning our backs to those at grave risk of the Taliban for their U.S. cooperation. This is not merely an issue of people attempting to enter our nation, it is turning on the principles of hospitality that the United States has stood on for centuries.
What’s evident here is a clear bias on what to punish and what crimes to properly acknowledge. On paper, using false identification to enter a Nashville bar carries the penalty of one month to one year of incarceration. Considering the risks of underage drinking, should we allow the police to forcefully enter our workplaces and lecture halls? No, that is considered inappropriate; most punishments for owning fake IDs in Nashville don’t even result in any jail time. We, as a society, have generally agreed police departments shouldn’t warrant that kind of aggression and punishment. To that end, does our fear of illegal immigrants warrant millions of dollars spent on deportation and ICE agents entering our lecture halls?
We have already seen ICE make immigration arrests in Tennessee. In Memphis, federal agents barged into the kitchen of a food truck, forcefully escorting workers away after demanding identification. Let us be clear: Having federal agents dressed like contractors rather than uniformed police officers abruptly barging into a food truck — with one of them masked — should not be seen as “justice.” Oftentimes, these agents wield warrants without judicial signatures. Without a signed warrant, this scenario violates core liberties in the Bill of Rights (excluding stipulations in housing contracts). Vanderbilt does not need federal officers in civilian clothes perusing through our campus on the hunt for anyone who might be here illegally.
In these past weeks, universities across the country — including Vanderbilt — have braced for the possibility of ICE entering campus. At this moment, there are few reports of ICE actually entering university campuses, but the fear remains palpable. In an article published by The Daily Texan, an anonymous student stated that they expect their international friends to leave the United States after graduation, and even she was apprehensive of returning to her home nation in fear of being denied re-entry into the United States. At Florida State University — where nearby ICE presence has been reported — university officials were not told ahead of time of the federal officers’ arrival. Meanwhile, their ProColombia co-president Gabriel Seda claimed that Latino students’ “rights are being stripped away.” We’ve even seen the recent arrest of recent-graduate Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University as a stark example of how far the federal government is willing to reach to punish advocates. So, what can we do? We can use our rights.
To secure yourself individually, the “Know Your Rights” campaign is a powerful guide to handling ICE enforcement. Additionally, dorm rooms are considered private domiciles, meaning Fourth Amendment protections are in place. We do not wish to promote criminal activity by blocking so-called “justice.” Rather, we suggest the utilization of individual rights granted by legal precedent — from the Bill of Rights and decades of Supreme Court decisions clarifying unreasonable search and seizure — to prevent federal tyranny on immigrants, under the notion that they are to be deemed innocent until proven guilty. We acknowledge that some in the current administration are unhappy with the prevention of deportations but while we sincerely appreciate their efforts to keep the United States safe, the United States was not built by them. It was built by the brave Founding Fathers who understood the meaning of tyranny and who advocated in their own right against the overreaching power of a central government. Allowing a central government — no matter who sits in the seat — to have such unsupervised power is not the foundation of this great nation, and we do not wish for that to change anytime soon.
A bold but unlikely course of action is for Vanderbilt’s administration to prevent ICE from freely coming onto campus. As we have seen from Vanderbilt’s response to the Kirkland Hall sit-in, alongside comments from administrators, Vanderbilt is a private university. Though this status means less flexibility on individual Constitutional rights, Vanderbilt is free to bar anybody they wish from entering campus. Yes, a judicial warrant would circumvent this problem, but ICE has a tendency to use an administrative warrant, oftentimes not signed by a judge, which does not allow the same search privileges on private property. Suppose Vanderbilt bars ICE agents from entering campus without a legitimate judicial warrant. In that case, it would almost certainly result in a pull of federal — and perhaps even state — funding for the university. For example, this process can start by making a statement like Metro Nashville Public Schools has, easing the minds of students and parents while publicly vocalizing the support for those affected in our community. Concern and care are being shown in school districts; Where is your reassurance, Vanderbilt?
To the Vanderbilt community, we implore you to deeply consider what role ICE should play on our campus. According to Dialogue Vanderbilt, “At a moment when free expression on college campuses and in American civic life is at risk, we [Vanderbilt] are proud to affirm our commitment to this core principle [long tradition of free expression].” But where is the pride in that statement in this current political climate? It seems Vanderbilt has tucked its tail between its legs, hiding behind the guise of maintaining the tradition of free expression instead of rightfully questioning ICE’s threat to the safety and well-being of students. It is why now, more than ever, it is essential to acknowledge this issue before it comes to fruition. We owe this action not just to our safety but also to the future generations of the Vanderbilt community ahead. In short, we must dare to grow above the dog-whistles of bigotry that may lie ahead.
