A routine visit to Cal State Monterey Bay from a representative from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security set off a wave of activity on campus and social media Monday.
Shortly after a campus-wide email went out at 10:46 a.m. about the presence of DHS to conduct an annual audit of the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, students began posting resources to social media on what to do if approached by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Some even came to the AS Students Senate meeting that morning to give public comment. Although the visit was routine, strong emotions were still set off for many students.
“The student reaction is really based on what’s going on in the world,” said AS Vice President of Internal Affairs Thorn Perez. “I feel if this happened five years ago when ICE wasn’t one of the affecters of people’s day to day life it wouldn’t have as much of a reaction considering this was an annual thing that they do.”
The representative was not an ICE agent. ICE is the primary law enforcement agency within the DHS created to handle immigration enforcement.
In a follow-up message sent at 2:45 p.m. the same day, the university reinforced that no immigration action was taken, and that the meeting was resolved in less than an hour.
Yvonne Gordon, interim associate vice president for public safety and chief of police, said visits are usually 30-45 minutes long and the meeting had been expected to start at 10:30 a.m. Gordon also noted that under Senate Bill 98 the school is required to send notice of visits to the campus community.
SB Bill 98, also known as the Sending Alerts to Families in Education Act, was signed in September and requires state public schools – including public universities – to immediately notify students, parents and staff of immigration enforcement on campus.
According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, “The Student and Exchange Visitor Program collects, maintains, analyzes and provides information so only legitimate foreign students or exchange visitors gain entry to the United States.” These compliance visits may occur as part of a 6 to 12-month cycle, or “off-cycle” which can occur at any time.
But questions remain for many students – for example, why the 16-minute gap between when the representative would have already been on campus and the time the message was sent out.