GA - Advocates Launch Alert Service For Students Without Legal Status
By ELLY YU • 3 HOURS AGO
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The nonprofit Freedom University has launched an alert service for students without legal status on campus.
ELLY YU / WABE
Starting July 1, private universities in Georgia that adopt sanctuary policies to protect students without legal status would lose funding under a new state law.
In response, a group of students has launched an emergency texting service meant to warn students without legal status of immigration enforcement on campuses in the metro Atlanta area.
Freedom University, a nonprofit school created for students without legal status, has started a texting service called “MELT ICE” – or the Mass Emergency Lookout Text for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Because no private university has declared itself a sanctuary, because Georgia is targeting sanctuary campuses, students mobilized to protect themselves, and this was one of the ways they’ve decided to do it,” said Laura Emiko Soltis, executive director of Freedom University.
Earlier this year, Georgia lawmakers passed a bill that would strip funding from private universities in Georgia that limit cooperation with federal immigration officials.
State Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, sponsored the measure after a group of students at Emory University had petitioned the college to declare it as a sanctuary for students living in the country without legal permission.
“Lawbreaking 101 is not an acceptable course in our universities,” said Ehrhart on the state House floor before the House voted to pass the bill.
Anyone can report to the texting service, but only a group of 10 trained people can send out texts after they investigate a report, Soltis said.
“We’re trying to create sanctuaries from the grassroots,” she said.
Liz, a 22-year-old Freedom University student and one of the 10 investigators, said she wants to attend Emory University or Agnes Scott College next year. She doesn’t have legal status and didn’t want to use her real name.
She said she was saddened by the passage of the new law.
“Schools are supposed to be somewhere where you feel safe, where different types of people come together to learn,” she said.
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the agency has nationwide authority as a federal law enforcement agency, but that it still has a policy in place that says enforcement officers should generally avoid “sensitive locations,” which includes schools and churches.
Immigrant-rights advocates said there haven’t been reports yet of immigration enforcement officers on Georgia college campuses, but they’re preparing in case.
http://news.wabe.org/post/advocates-...t-legal-status
