President Donald Trump has signed 70 executive orders since his inauguration. These orders have covered topics across the board. However, his promise of deportation remains at the forefront of his presidency thus far.
With undocumented immigrants and birthright citizenship being the main topic of conversation, students are nervous about what these laws could mean for them and their families, especially being away at college.
Annie, whose last name will be withheld because of the sensitive nature of the story, lives with these fears daily.
“It sucks,” Annie said. “It’s scary that not only are they trying to deport people, like my family, but possibly me as well. It’s become stressful knowing what they’re trying to do on top of being apart from my family. It’s living in a constant fear of not knowing what’s going on. If something happens, how am I going to find out?”
Both of Annie’s parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic. While her mother obtained her visa a little over a decade ago, her dad has yet to begin the process of getting one.
“He’s the type to just go about life,” Annie said. “We have tried to get him to do it many times, even after my mom did it, but he said he, ‘didn’t want to deal with all of that.’ I think his main part is just learning the English language. He can deal with small conversations, but I don’t think he wants to go through the process of it.”
It typically takes anywhere from a year and half to two years to obtain citizenship. But, the process can be tedious. After watching her mother go through it, Annie feels the tedious information is arbitrary to becoming a citizen.
“I do think it is a little unfair,” Annie said. “Probably half of the things that my mom did to get her citizenship, she doesn’t use. I have to force having a conversation in English out of her. At the same time for some people, it takes longer for them to obtain their citizenship. It’s not necessarily the same process for everybody which is also an unfair part.”
While her parents and other extended family are where most of her concerns lie with these new immigration orders, she is frustrated by what could potentially happen to her with the potential removal of birthright citizenship.
“It’s not like, ‘Why am I being involved? Because of my family, I already am involved,” Annie said. “But, like, why me? Why are they trying to take my birth citizenship away?”
There are a lot of unanswered questions as families like Annie’s move through times of uncertainty. Even on Brockport’s campus, there are protocols and procedures that not many students are aware of.
The SUNY’s Office of General Counsel shared the protocols with all SUNY president’s offices, should external law enforcement come on campus. According to the protocols, all students, faculty and staff, if approached by external law enforcement asking for information, should respond with: “I am not authorized to respond to this request. I will notify the University Police Department (UPD) and my campus counsel, who will review and respond to your request.”
These protocols are based on the Executive Order 170 that Governor Kathy Hochul signed in 2017 stating that “Civil arrests by federal immigration authorities may only be executed within state facilities when accompanied by a judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing them to take into custody the person who is the subject of such warrant…”
Assistant Vice President for Communications John Follaco said Brockport has always relied on UPD for cases such as these, but the communication and reminder of these protocols have been beneficial with the current state of uncertainty.
“University Police has long served as our point of contact for external law enforcement agencies,” Follaco said. “With recent changes at the federal level, there has been an uptick in the number of inquiries we’ve received from faculty and staff on this topic and the SUNY protocols that we distributed have helped to answer those questions.”
While these plans have already been in place, University Police Chief Dan Vasile reiterates Executive Order 170, that without physical legal documentation no student will be removed from campus.
“We’re not cooperating with any federal agents unless they come here with judicial warrants, immigration detainers, some sort of subpoena, something that’s court ordered.” Vasile said. “We don’t give out information to anybody. We’re very confidential in that area. If somebody calls us and tells us they are law enforcement, we usually tell them, ‘Hey. If you get a court order, we’ll cooperate with you.’ Then, we would take something to the SUNY Council. If I was given a warrant or something, I would show it to our representative to make sure that it was all completely legal, and we would decide on how to move forward.”
Vasile hopes that students know they have the full support of UPD in any and all cases that may come up.
“I think we’re the biggest resource because we can protect you to a degree where we’re not going to let people just take people out of here,” Vasile said.
Follaco also wants to ensure students that their safety is not being overlooked.
“The safety of our students is our top priority. We are committed to ensuring that SUNY Brockport is a safe place for all of our students to live and learn,” Follaco said.
Although the safety and concern of students is a priority for Brockport, Annie feels more could be done. She said she was not aware of any of the policies SUNY has in place.
“It’s important for students like myself to know what Brockport will be doing for us,” Annie said. “Because, as of right now, I really thought anything could happen to me. I didn’t think we could call UP if any of us were in that position. I think just the communication part could take us a long way and help us feel more seen and comfortable as a community experiencing something like this.”
If external law enforcement agencies do approach you on campus, call the Brockport University Police Department at 585-395-2226.
