IU is not currently a sanctuary campus. This means that, within the bounds of laws regarding student privacy, IU will cooperate with federal immigration officials investigating illegal immigration.
However, if groups like UndocuHoosier and Students Against State Violence have their way, this may soon change. According to Indiana Daily Student reporting, student group UndocuHoosier is having UndocuStudents Week to demand the University become a sanctuary campus. This would mean that University employees would have to refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials by withholding information relevant to investigations and preventing campus police from helping to enforce immigration laws.
Fortunately, IU administration at the moment seems to oppose this. Testifying to an Indiana Senate panel, associate vice president for government relations at IU Jeff Linder said the University “does not and will not have sanctuary campuses.”
A statement released by the University, quoted on Fox59, says in part “Indiana University will not declare itself a sanctuary campus if that means violating federal or state laws.”
This is a rare showing of common sense from IU’s administration. It would be a massive mistake for this public University to decide to nullify federal law.
From a practical standpoint, IU exists in a deep red state, one that voted for President Trump by a margin of 19 points. Does it seem likely that the voters funding this University would tolerate its defying policies they so overwhelmingly supported for long?
In fact, it appears Republicans in the Statehouse are trying to prevent such nonsense, since the committee Linder was testifying to was debating whether or not to prevent public universities from becoming sanctuary campuses.
Beyond the practical concerns, it would send the wrong message for IU to ignore federal law. Our government is built to incorporate friction between the different levels, with state interests and beliefs rubbing up against federal ones all the time. However, our system is designed to handle this legally in the courtroom.
For IU to defy federal law would fly in the face of this for two reasons.
First, this sort of lawlessness is incompatible with democracy. Having lost at the ballot box, opponents of current immigration law must take their case to court. Unless they can convince a judge that current laws are unconstitutional, they must abide them. It does not take much long-term thinking to see how the republic will falter if those on the wrong side of electoral and judicial decisions are free to nullify them at will.
Additionally, IU is not a coequal branch of our government. States sue the federal government as equals, independent members of a federation that have their own rights and governments. Despite what those at UndocuHoosier might think, IU is not a government unto itself. As damaging as it would be for states and cities to go against federal law, having miniature fiefdoms crop up wherever discontent liberals have power would shred the rule of law.
History is long. Memory is short. Nullification, taken to its logical end, results in violent conflict between the federal government and those disobeying. If no authority is legitimate or supreme, humanity must rely on nature’s method of dispute resolution.
While IU sometimes feels like a foreign country when compared to the sea of rural, deep red communities surrounding it, it is important to remember it is not. UndocuHoosier would do a tremendous disservice to the University and country if it has its way.
While it is unlikely that slam poetry and the cooing approval of those in attendance will change administration’s stance, it is necessary that the state and its citizens keep the University honest and following the law, as administrators will undoubtedly face increasing pressure to push back as the Trump years continue.
