A letter to UC President Michael V. Drake demands action regarding recent national immigration policies
By EMME DUNNING — features@theaggie.org
As fear surrounding national immigration policy grows for many, faculty across the University of California system have put effort into supporting impacted students. This was reflected in a letter to UC President Michael V. Drake on Jan. 17, 2025 — signed by over 750 UC faculty members — calling on Drake’s office to take specific steps to support undocumented students and their families.
The letter outlines the proposed federal policies regarding immigration, specifically expressing concern for the impact new policies may have on University of California students across the state. In response to the proposed immigration rhetoric outlined by the Trump Administration, a large group of faculty has called on Drake to take five steps to support impacted students, according to the language of the letter:
- “Publicly reaffirm the UC’s unwavering support for its immigrant students.”
- “Invest significant additional funds into the existing programs of support for immigrant students.”
- “Create a new program to provide emergency funds to immigrant students.”
- “Commit to increasing student data privacy.”
- “Provide clear guidance to campus community members, including administrators,
faculty, staff and students about best practices for supporting and protecting immigrant
students.”
Dr. Robert Irwin, the deputy director of the Global Migration Center and a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Davis, decided to be a part of the letter. This decision was made to show solidarity with impacted members of the UC community, as well as to assert the importance of implementing formal guidelines to faculty members regarding interactions with immigration officials.
“We were very concerned not just about what might happen, but about the level of anxiety amongst students who might be affected,” Irwin said. “We thought it would be important to have a strong message coming out of the president’s office, as well as some procedures in place in case something were to happen so that employees and faculty would be well positioned to help our students as much as possible.”
Irwin said that although the Trump Administration has been unpredictable, it would be unprecedented to target their immigration policies toward college campuses.
“The general public doesn’t want [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] to be going after those kinds of people,” Irwin said. “If they start making high-profile arrests on college campuses of childhood arrivals that are just trying to study, I think it would look really bad and I think it would cause them damage.”
Despite a lack of precedent for raids on college campuses, such an action would not be completely out of line with the stated values of the Trump Administration, which issued a directive on Jan. 21 allowing ICE agents to enter previously protected schools, churches and hospitals to carry out immigration enforcement operations.
A Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis, Dr. Raquel Aldana, believes that taking action against these policies now can provide security for the future.
“This isn’t a strategy of overstating the issue — I think it actually is a fairly certain landscape that it could happen at any point,” Aldana said. “It is important for institutions to be ready and prepared for the potential worst.”
Although Aldana hopes that Drake will implement these directives, she also asserted that individual faculty members and students can make changes on their own.
“There’s limitations in what we can do as individuals, but there’s also possibilities — especially in the collective,” Aldana said. “We look to administrators as being the only sights of solutions, but we give up too much agency and too much power when we only seek solutions from the top. We are the institution. Each of us.”
Dr. Veronica Lerma, an assistant professor of sociology at UC Davis, has a research focus on criminalization and intersectionality. Lerma believes that supporting students through this period is incredibly important.
“I recognize the harm that the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, particularly those that emphasize mass deportation and family separation, have on students and their families,” Lerma said. “The letter just aligns with my ethical and professional commitment to support and stand with and advocate for my students, especially those who may be the most marginalized, which includes undocumented students.”
At a high-level institution such as UC Davis, it is easy for academic pressures to mount. When coupled with real-world concerns about the future for undocumented students, it can become increasingly difficult to maintain the level of academic performance expected of UC Davis students.
“I have students who are maybe in class, but they’re not really ‘there,’ right?” Lerma said. “Doing the things that they need to do as students to succeed in school is kind of like the furthest thing from their mind when they’re worried about whether they’re gonna lose their family or whether or not they’re going to be here. I think it’s unethical to hold those students to the standards that I’m holding other students who don’t have to navigate what that is and what that looks like.”
In response to these concerns, Lerma hopes to alleviate some of the academic pressures for her students who are experiencing increased stress levels during this time.
“Just giving them grace in this moment has gone a long way,” Lerma said. “That means flexibility with turning in assignments or even sometimes just being an ear to have a conversation.”
The policies proposed in the letter aim to give undocumented students and their families long-term security and support in the face of an uncertain next four years. Lerma hopes that these actions, coupled with support from classmates and faculty, can help provide solace amid the uncertainty.
Sometimes, she said, this just looks like making it through another day.
“If they’re surviving today, that’s enough,” Lerma said.
Written by: Emme Dunning — features@theaggie.org
