Lawyer: Sanctuary campus status may make immigrants targets

When Galarza saw the trend of college students around the country starting petitions demanding that their schools become sanctuary campuses for immigrants, he wanted to take a different approach.

[...] he asked Hood College administrators — Charles Mann, vice president of finance and treasurer, Provost Debbie Ricker and President Andrea Chapdelaine — to start a discussion about what it would take and mean to make Hood College or any other university a sanctuary campus.

In response, the school hosted Janis Judson, chair of the Department of Law and Criminal Justice at Hood, and Andrea Shuford, principal attorney at Shuford Immigration Law in Virginia and a graduate of Hood, to answer questions and discuss what a sanctuary campus is, and what it isn't.

In June 2012, the Obama administration implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — or DACA — to allow recipients who were illegally brought into the country as children to receive a renewable two-year grace period to avoid deportation and the opportunity to receive eligibility for a work permit.

Shuford, who has offered pro-bono services to students at Hood College who may face immigration issues, said making it a sanctuary campus wouldn't really have much meaning.

Since 2008, Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins has partnered with ICE under the 287(g) "Criminal Alien Program," which allows the sheriff's office to identify and begin the deportation process for undocumented immigrants in cooperation with ICE.

[...] colleges can come up with procedures and guidelines for students and faculty to know their rights in the event that an ICE officer might arrive on campus to execute a search warrant, or search archives for records of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.