Thomas Abeyta

Do Illegal Immigrants Belong At UNM?

On May 8, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against New Mexico and her municipalities, alleging that our communities have violated the Supremacy Clause which gives the federal government authority to operate within our state in the fashion they see fit. If successful, it would essentially become illegal for New Mexico or her cities to refuse to work with ICE in its efforts of mass deporting immigrant workers and asylum seekers. On September 23 at 8:22 p.m., the UNM student body gave their response. The ASUNM Student Senate passed Resolution 1F in a resounding 16-2 vote, protecting our campus from engaging and cooperating with Trump’s ICE, protecting the scholarships of foreign students, advocating the safety of quasi-public spaces like Frontier, and most of all — protecting the rights of undocumented students. According to Senator Gutierrez, one of the resolution’s sponsors, there are at least 300 undocumented students here at UNM. According to the sponsor and author of the resolution, Senator Bearden, he has heard of at least 3 incidents of ICE removing a student from our campus.