MSU Employees Protect Students' Immigration Status

About 700 Michigan State University employees have signed a statement indicating they will not collaborate with federal agencies that try to discern the immigration status of university students, according to a Lansing State Journal report.
In a "statement of solidarity," faculty and staff said they would support students' attempts to remain in the U.S and will not collaborate with federal agencies seeking to apprehend or deport them. MSU employs about 12,000 faculty and staff, according to its website.
The faculty statement comes on the heels of executive orders that restrict travel to the U.S. and refugee resettlement. A March 6 executive order from President Donald Trump suspended visitors from Syria, Yemen Somalia, Iran, Libya and Sudan for 90 days, and halted refugee resettlement for 120 days. The order also decreased the number of refugees allowed in to the U.S. in 2017 to 50,000.
In a press release that accompanied the statement, Ken Harrow, an English Professor at MSU, said the statement – put together without input from university administration – "is not a call for disobedience of laws, but a refusal to collaborate with the federal immigration authorities such as ICE (Immigration and Customs enforcement)."
MSU Spokesman Jason Cody told the LSJ in an email the university appreciated "the efforts by our faculty and staff to reinforce the core values of MSU, including diversity and inclusion."
He said MSU does not disclose information from a student's education record, including immigration status, without the student's consent, unless compelled by law.
He said the January travel ban, which later was rescinded and replaced with the March 6 order, has limited the ability for some students to travel abroad. Cody said the university continues to admit students from the six restricted countries. "MSU has always believed strongly in the benefits of having a diverse and global student body and work force, and that will not change," Cody said.
Read the full story online at www.lansingstatejournal.com.