By Pamela Cruz
A group of students and members of the community recently launched a petition demanding that Stanford University formally declare itself a sanctuary campus and prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing its facilities. The petition comes amid growing concerns about the impact of federal immigration policies on undocumented students, DACA recipients, international academics, and patients.
The initiative, published on the Change.org platform, gathered 107 signatures in its first four days. It calls on the university to adopt concrete measures to protect vulnerable members of the university community.
Among the demands are declaring Stanford a sanctuary campus, preventing ICE agents from entering all university and medical areas, removing the Flock surveillance cameras installed at campus entrances, and creating safe, non-public routes for students, faculty, and staff in the event of immigration raids.
The petition was spearheaded by sophomore Halli Lane-Skauge, who argues that students, teachers, and patients should not have to live in fear of potential immigration enforcement actions within educational and healthcare settings.
“The treatment of detainees, protesters, and innocent bystanders by immigration officials constitutes a violation of human rights,” the petition states.
Proponents maintain that recent changes in federal policy have increased the vulnerability of international students, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and people without legal immigration status.
The petition also cites concerns related to healthcare within immigration detention centers, particularly for pregnant women and individuals requiring reproductive health services.
The document mentions research and reports from civil rights organizations that have denounced deficiencies in access to medical care, legal counsel, and mental health services for detainees.
The organizers also claim that there have been reports of patients being transferred from Stanford Hospital and immigration agents being present in areas of the campus during 2025 and 2026, although the university has not issued any public comments on the claims contained in the petition.
Currently, university policies allow federal agents to enter public areas of the campus without prior authorization, a practice that the initiative’s proponents seek to change.
The campaign comes at a time of growing tension at universities in California and other regions of the country, where student organizations and immigrant advocacy groups have called on educational institutions to strengthen protections for undocumented and foreign students.
California is home to one of the largest populations of immigrant students in the United States, in addition to thousands of DACA recipients pursuing higher education at public and private universities.
In recent years, several academic institutions have adopted sanctuary campus policies or special protocols to limit cooperation with immigration authorities, although the legal capacity of universities to restrict access by federal agencies remains a subject of debate.
The petition remains open to the public and seeks to gather additional support to pressure Stanford to adopt measures that, according to its promoters, guarantee a safe environment for students, professors, workers, and patients regardless of their immigration status.
Feature image via Flickr. Published under CC License 2.0
