STANFORD, CA, April 27—A group of students staged a sit-in demanding sanctuary for undocumented students in front of hundreds of admitted students, families, and administrators during the main University Welcome event. About a dozen students walked onto stage with signs stating, “ICE is not welcome,” and sat down for an hour, chanting intermittently.
One parent yelled out, “Only legal immigrants are welcome here,” so the students chanted, “ALL immigrants are welcome here! No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” People from the audience joined in. Several later thanked them for their actions.
Administration did not know what to do with themselves! The Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Richard Shaw and Provost Persis Drell looked flabbergasted. At the moment they said the protesters were doing this because they love Stanford, and “this is one the things that makes this place so special.” Later, the University released a statement in the Stanford Daily expressing “disappointment” in the students’ tactics. The university bosses’ liberalism only hides their true nature: to perpetuate and normalize the class inequalities—this includes borders and differences based on citizenship.
The next day, even more students stood outside the auditorium with a banner, signs, and chants (see photo).
It was a weekend of action for the over-forty multiracial, multigender students determined to show the incoming class an example of fightback against the racist policies on campus, and to demand that Stanford be a sanctuary campus. Stanford is one of many campuses across the country where students, faculty and campus workers are fighting to safeguard against president Trump’s deportation plans.
Progressive Labor Party applauds the antiracist actions of these students. They are part of a long-term struggle to abolish borders. Wherever there is an opportunity to expose the deadly liberalism of universities and their role in endorsing racism, there is also an opportunity for the fighters to become working-class leaders for a border-less and egalitarian world.
The Battle for Sanctuary
Since the election of Trump, Stanford Sanctuary Now (SSN) has been working to make Stanford a sanctuary campus. Their demands include:
- Supporting students offering need-blind admission (the college doesn’t consider family’s finances when deciding to admit) to all students, including undocumented and international students.
- Protect campus workers, as they are the most exploited and at-risk of harassment. SSN considers them as much a part of Stanford as the students and faculty, because without them, they would not have food to eat and clean classrooms
- Stanford should refuse to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (immigration police)
- Provide free legal services to all students, campus workers, and their families
- Divest from private prisons and detention centers and all other corporations that profit from displacement and exploitation of immigrants, refugees, Black, and indigenous communities.
For the past few months, the students have been meeting with administration to push these demands. After several meetings, their intentions were clear. The racist administration has sanctuary, hurting undocumented students and workers on campus.
What’s more, the university bosses counter that a sanctuary campus will endanger the lives of the undocumented. They have also have patronized and ignored the formerly undocumented students who are leading the movement, telling them that Stanford has “plenty of undocumented applicants.” The bosses have gone on to claim the only place where undocumented are targeted is at the southern border. So much fake news, so many lies for a university that prides itself on intellectual superiority.
The meetings with administration have exposed the university bosses for the rotten capitalist goons they are. It was then they decided to escalate to direct actions. It is evident that students can only rely on themselves and the campus workers to fight back.
The students and workers at Stanford can benefit by arming themselves with communist politics and a fighting organization. Progressive Labor Party fights to abolish borders, when all of the working class belongs to one world. To find out more about PLP, follow us on twitter @PLPchallenge.