Under the current administration, we have witnessed a series of dangerous immigration policies and actions. These developments impact our students, employees, campuses, and communities in real time, jeopardizing the future of our colleges and universities.
Now is the time for us in higher education to sound the fire alarm. Sounding the fire alarm does not mean panic. It is a call to response, mobilization and action.
Why collective action is urgently needed now
In recent months, the short- and long-term harms of the government’s immigration actions have come into sharper focus, requiring significant action.
- As a result of the government’s actions, prospective international students’ confidence in studying in the United States has plummeted. New international student enrollment has already fallen by more than 10% at many institutions this fall, with some institutions seeing even steeper declines, and analysts expect even deeper declines in coming years.
- The administration is actively removing in-state tuition and financial aid opportunities for a growing number of state undocumented students and threatening specific institutions for supporting undocumented students.
- As reports of immigration enforcement on and off campus increase, more institutions are grappling with how to respond to fear and anxiety in their communities and how to support students, family members and employees involved in large-scale enforcement operations.
- Humanitarian parolees and Temporary Protected Status holders are losing protection and work authorization, making them vulnerable targets for deportation.
The impacts of these developments are already being felt on campus, but the economic consequences and impact on American productivity and innovation are much broader. A new study from the National Foundation for American Policy estimates that the current administration’s immigration policies targeting undocumented, legal immigrants, and international populations will reduce the number of U.S. workers by 6.8 million by 2028 and 15.7 million by 2035, reducing annual economic growth by nearly one-third.
A recent paper on “brain freeze” suggests that the United States will suffer significant adverse economic and innovation impacts due to a decline in international students and researchers. Immigrant and international students currently make up nearly 40 percent of higher education students on our campuses, and losing any portion of them would be devastating to many institutions, local economies and states across the country.
What can we do together?
Since January, colleges and universities have been grappling with policies that adversely impact immigrants, internationals, refugees and other non-citizen campus members. At the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, we work with campuses to analyze emerging policies and develop effective responses, providing resources on campus immigration enforcement, noncitizen registration requirements and issues related to international students, as well as guidance on funding and tuition equity policies to support Dreamers, and ways to support students and other campus members who may be detained or deported.
We now need to take it to the next level. Colleges, universities, and the associations that represent them need to continually coordinate and mobilize to address immigration-related threats affecting our campuses.
support litigation
Higher education groups, associations and institutions are litigating on multiple fronts. While challenging the administration’s dubious — and, as many legal experts and courts have concluded, illegal — immigration policy actions may seem overwhelming, we need to connect the dots and explain their harm to judges with the power to halt their implementation and denounce the administration’s constitutional violations.
Public agencies in states with Democratic attorneys general can help educate their attorneys general on the importance of joining these efforts. Some of the ways higher education institutions can support litigation include:
- as named plaintiff. While associations representing colleges and universities, including the President’s Alliance, the Massachusetts Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Association of American Universities, have demonstrated their readiness to serve as named plaintiffs in immigration-related legal challenges, we need more associations and institutions prepared to support such litigation. Litigation is a way to interrupt intersectional policy actions that amplify the myriad threats faced by immigrants and the international community and to build a record of opposition to potentially unlawful actions.
- Submit a statement. Agencies have a vital role to play in filing statements in support of legal challenges. These fact-based documents describe the specific harm an institution is experiencing and provide critical evidence that strengthens the overall case.
- Include amicus briefs. When campuses join amicus briefs, they demonstrate coordination and unity within the higher education sector. For example, last spring, when the American Association of University Professors challenged the administration’s unlawful visa revocations based on ideological deportation policies, 86 institutions and organizations joined the President’s coalition and issued an amicus brief emphasizing the importance of protecting the free speech of international and noncitizen students and scholars. This week, 37 institutions and organizations joined our amicus brief to demonstrate the importance of tuition equity policies to Dreamers.
Say it
Agencies and associations need to work more closely together to support each other and communicate the harms of harmful immigration policies. Under this administration, public speech and behavior at public and private institutions are increasingly measured and constrained by boardrooms, state policies and structures, and campus politics. We know that fear of retaliation and potential collateral damage to other campus constituencies influences decision-making. Many agency leaders I speak with are seeking what works strategically and are weighing multiple priorities and competing commitments.
What we know now is that not speaking out does not prevent an institution from being targeted, and many campus constituencies are already being harmed. As a result, strategic considerations are changing and there may be more to gain from speaking out. Here are some valid expressions:
- Affirm one for all and all for one. Brian Sandoval, chancellor of the University of Nevada, Reno and former Republican governor of Nevada, quickly responded to the Justice Department’s attack on UNR’s support of undocumented students, making clear that UNR’s services are legal and that supporting the success of all students is core to the mission of higher education. The President’s Alliance and TheDream.US issued a public statement of support, reaffirming the importance of higher education supporting the success of Dreamers and all students. When individual institutions speak out, they often affirm our shared mission, and we in turn can reaffirm theirs.
- Support Association Statement. Associations play an important role in convening institutional leaders and making statements. We must continue to rely on each other and our associations. Statements from the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education on the proposed Higher Education Compact set out our department’s position. Institutions and associations that can join such a statement should continue to do so.
- Education and engagement. Institutional leaders and board members can spread accurate, positive information about immigrants and international students, changing the narrative through comments like ASU President Michael Crow’s op-ed on the importance of international students.
Join alliance building
For collective action to work, we need to create dedicated spaces for higher education institutions to gather and coordinate. This call to action does not diminish the necessity and usefulness of institutional leaders having private conversations on campus, in the state, in Congress, and with the current administration. While many of us may need to stay in quieter spaces, now is also a time for each of us to consider what else we can do together.
- Join us and build an alliance. Establishing and hosting coordination groups and strategy meetings specifically focused on immigration has been a focus of our Presidential Coalition. It has proven very effective in developing relationships with other departments and building support across regional contexts. We invite you to join our work to build consensus across the political spectrum and advocate for forward-thinking, common-sense immigration reform.
- Improve your coordination. Institutions must be prepared to respond to changing policies. Greater coordination will help campuses quickly learn about new developments while avoiding preemption or overcompliance. It will help agencies know what they can do when they need to act quickly to respond to immigration enforcement or policy actions that may have immediate consequences.
When we sound the alarm, we call on others to join us in taking action. It’s time for emergency response. Together, higher education can take coordinated steps to protect our institutions and community members.
