ICE arrests alarm California’s community colleges. How much can campus officials do? – CalMatters

ICE arrests alarm California’s community colleges. How much can campus officials do?  CalMatters

California community college officials say they are trying to protect students but can’t bar ICE agents from public spaces on campus. California community colleges are trying to discourage immigration enforcement on campuses, but they can’t do much to bar ICE agents from public spaces. Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges. Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists. Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building.

Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo. College presidents say they’re doing everything in their power to keep students safe and prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus. But they admit that they have limited power in these situations. “If ICE agents want to come and walk in the middle of campus, they can do that,” said Kevin Walthers, the president of