Our Focus

As social work students, we believe that every person who steps foot on this campus, regardless of national origin or citizenship status, should feel safe. SUNY Brockport has an obligation to all its community to make sure that this happens. With an increase in violence and dangerous rhetoric from immigration officials, fear among our most vulnerable on campus is growing. This is why we propose that SUNY Brockport become the first sanctuary campus within the SUNY system. By strengthening SUNY policy surrounding immigration enforcement it will increase the institution's ability to protect its students and staff.

Proposals of change 

·     Creating an appointed individual within the SUNY Brockport system to deal with ICE

·     SUNY Brockport can be the first sanctuary school within the SUNY system as a trial period

·      Providing University police training on intervention and deescalation regarding ICE’s interactions with vulnerable students

·       Creating and administering culturally responsive workshops for faculty, staff, and students regarding their constitutional rights and interactions with ICE

·       Restricting campus police involvement in ICE operations

Why a sanctuary campus? 

ICE has already had a major negative impact on American society. In all of 2025, ICE made 328,000 arrests, greatly disrupting the communities they had a presence in. In January of 2026 alone, ICE was detaining 73,000 individuals. Entire communities have been thrown into uproar due to unjust arrests, lack of judicial procedure, and violent actions taken by ICE. Individuals, regardless of legal status, have been forced to live in fear, afraid they will be arrested simply because of the way they look or dress. 

Attending college is already a stressful action, with classes, essays, presentations, and scholarships. Adding a fear of unlawful arrest is not a stressor that should be normalized. After 1868, there should no longer be a reason for people to be arrested for the color of their skin.

When the current administration took over in January of 2025, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy was changed. Schools, hospitals, and churches, also known as “sensitive areas”, were areas that immigration officers were not allowed to patrol. The change allowed and encouraged immigration officers to patrol these locations even without a judicial warrant. The Fourth Amendment protects private spaces such as dorms, classrooms, and offices, but not areas that are open to the public like gyms or dining halls.

Importance of the change and how it affects the campus environment 

SUNY Brockport promotes its values and mission statement within the SUNY Brockport website, claiming that they aim to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion by fostering a welcoming campus that values dignity, multiculturalism, and global engagement for all members of the Brockport community. The policies put in place to protect our students from Immigration enforcement do not coincide with the values and mission statement that SUNY Brockport claims to have; therefore the best interest of the students is not seen as a priority. With I.C.E becoming more daring when it comes to entering college campuses, it is imminent that we protect our students and faculty by making SUNY Brockport the first SUNY school to become a sanctuary college, giving our college community the ability to learn in a safe and nurturing environment.

As a campus community, we need to ask ourselves, “Do we feel safe from immigration enforcement at SUNY Brockport”? And if not, let's make sure we're equipped to stand up to them through policy reform and advocacy to keep them off campus.