María Blanco Comments for Time on California Universities and Immigration

María Blanco, Executive Director of the Undocumented Student Legal Services Center at UC Davis School of Law, commented for Time on student petitions that have called for California universities to adopt sanctuary policies that would prevent them from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in aggressive enforcement actions they expect under the administration of president-elect Donald Trump.

Blanco said that undocumented students who have sought advice from the Center since Election Day have been “very, very stressed” and “feel like the rug’s been pulled out from under them.”

Universities could ease some of those fears by choosing not to share students’ personal information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without a subpoena, preventing law enforcement agencies from conducting raids on campus without a warrant, and instructing campus police to decline to take on the responsibility of enforcing immigration law, Blanco said.