Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, Chancellor-Elect Andrew D. Martin, Provost Holden Thorp, Vice Chancellor Lori S. White, Associate Vice Chancellor Nicole Hudson, Vice Provost Adrienne D. Davis, Associate Vice Chancellor Emelyn de la Peña,

To the Washington University in St. Louis Administration:

We, the undersigned community members, students, workers, and faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, ask the university administration to embrace policies that support immigrant students and workers and international students.

Our university has already demonstrated its investment in protecting international workers and students during recent national immigration debates. We applaud Chancellor Wrighton’s appearance on CNN on February 4th, 2017, regarding the letter he and 47 other college and university administrators signed, protesting the Muslim-focused travel ban. We also celebrate his continued support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; particularly his declaration on September 5th, 2017, that “every Washington University student—regardless of immigration status, race, ethnicity, nationality or any other identity—deserves the same opportunity for academic success.” In the same statement, he affirmed that the Washington University Police Department will not “function as an agent of the federal government in the enforcement of federal immigration laws” and that the administration “will not release information about a student’s immigration or citizenship status to third parties unless required to do so by law or directive from a court.” We believe that the values espoused in his statement should be codified in campus policy to provide stronger protections than those currently in place.

The fact that almost 21% of Washington University students and 41% of our graduate students were born outside of the United States is a credit to our university’s international commitments and underscores the need to provide additional support and security to the international members of our community. Our concerns for the safety and prosperity of international workers and students has increased with the rise of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s deportation of non-criminal undocumented workers, the ongoing crisis surrounding DACA and proposed increased barriers to legal immigration. As a result of this political climate, international student enrollment is declining at universities across the country. Muslim Americans have also been targeted and Chinese students’ visas threatened. Our community has been directly impacted: at least 41 students at Washington University and 62 students at other local universities have been negatively impacted by the Muslim-focused travel ban.

Our international students have not felt protected recently. In reference to an imagined strike, on August 31st, 2017, Provost Holden Thorp announced that “universities are legally required to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement […] if a student fails to maintain status.” The Provost’s website still employs this language and includes a quotation from ICE itself. While it is true that the University must report when a student no longer has full-time visa status, the university itself determines whether a student has in fact ceased to be full-time. Since the regulations prohibit visa-holding students from continuing to work when there has been a strike or work stoppage, it would be both irrational and unfair for the university to declare a student to be no longer full-time for not performing prohibited work. As long as that student continues to fulfill all required course and research obligations, the fact that he or she is obeying the law by not working should not terminate his or her full-time student status. We urge the Provost to modify his posted language as to clarify that the university does not regard a student’s decision to respect legal prohibitions on working during a strike or work stoppage as somehow interrupting the student’s full-time status and that, therefore, such a strike or work stoppage will not result in the university reporting a lapse of full-time status to ICE.

What more could our university and workplace do? We endorse the actions undertaken by Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and President Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania, a co-signer to a letter contesting the travel ban, in protecting our students and workers through policies of distance learning and continued financial support, respectively. We hope that our university will follow its peers by enacting similar policies, as outlined below. In addition, there is shared concern from the Association of American Universities about our immigration climate and, as a countermeasure, support for many of these policies by the American Association of University Professors.

We ask our administration to enact the following nine measures to protect our campus:

• Allow any detained or deported students or those refused re-entry to the U.S. to complete their degrees through distance learning initiatives and continue to receive any scholarships, loan disbursements and other sources of financial security;

• Guarantee that any detained or deported workers or those refused re-entry to the U.S. are compensated for their total hours worked prior to detainment or deportation;

• Reaffirm that Washington University will reject giving any assistance (e.g., document request, detainments for deportation proceedings, education, etc.) to ICE or other federal agencies without a court-ordered warrant or subpoena;

• Ensure that undocumented students and international students continue to receive financial assistance (e.g. scholarships, fellowships, stipends, etc.) should any legal proceedings occur against them;

• Offer confidential and free legal counseling at the Office for International Students and Scholars or other willing campus or community bodies, e.g., the Immigration Law Clinic;

• Maintain immigrant and international students’ and workers’ visa statuses regardless of their political views (e.g. issues like climate change, immigration, anti-war protesting, and unionization), and remove the statements threatening visa statuses from our university’s website;

• Reimburse all visa and Optional Practical Training (OPT) fees and provide tax and financial assistance for international students, to align our policies with other institutions, like the University of Connecticut;

• Lobby for federal immigration reform: to allow for more F-1, F-2, M-1, J-1, H-1B, and K-1 visas, an increase in asylum and refugee admissions and Temporary Protected Status recipients and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented US residents, as an expansion of the university’s continued support for DACA;

• Create a committee composed of undergraduate students, graduate students, campus workers, faculty, administrators and community partners to meet quarterly, at a minimum, to ensure that these policies are successfully enacted. This panel will be formed by at least two persons of these groups and should have at least 50 percent international membership from campus workers and the student body.

Considering our university’s commitment to academic freedom, we can think of no greater academic liberty than to be free from the threat of being torn from one’s vocation, home, and loved ones. We look forward to working together to have our university be the most positive living and working environment for all of its members. We hope to hear from you within a week. We will be speaking out in favor of these policies until the day they are enacted, and we look forward to that day coming soon.

Respectfully,

Washington University United Emigration Task Engine

Supporting Organizations:

Advocacy and Learning in Public Health Action at the Brown School (ALPHA)

Ashoka – Washington University South Asian Society

Asians and Pacific Islanders Demanding Justice (APIDJ)

Association of Gender Minority and Women Graduate Students (GeMWGS)

Association of Latin American Students (ALAS)

Black Student Union at the Brown School

Brown School Alliance of Asian & Pacific Islanders (BAAPI)

City Greens Market

Comunidad STL

Comparative Literature Association of Graduate Students (CLAGS)

Council on American-Islamic Relations-Missouri (CAIR-MO)

Disability Studies Graduate Reading Group (DSRG)

Green Action/Fossil Free Wash. U. (FFWU)

Hispanic Leaders Group of Greater St. Louis (HLG)

J Street U at Wash. U.

Japan Peer Network (JPN)

Latino Graduate Student Alliance (LGSA)

Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA)

Mi Gente Latinx & Allies at the Brown School

Migrant and Community Action Project (MICA Project)

Missouri Immigrant & Refugee Advocates (MIRA)

Muslim Students Association (MSA)

Native American Law Students Association (NALSA)

Pride Alliance

Service Employees International Union Missouri/Kansas State Council

Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA)

St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA)

Vietnamese Students’ Association

Washington University Chapter of Student National Medical Association (SNMA)

Washington University Graduate Workers Union (WUGWU)

Supporting Individuals:

Yasser Omar Abdellatif, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Jesús Acevedo Cintrón, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD/PhD program

Sarah Van Alsten, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Gabriel Antunez De Mayolo Kou, Graduate Student Worker, Spanish and Latin American Studies PhD program

Aura Aguilar, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Sanjana Babu, Undergraduate Student

Natasha Bailen, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Mary Jo Bang, Professor, Department of English

Sarah Benkendorf, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Peter Benson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Tessa Bernhardt, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Kristen Blazsik, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Marc Blanc, Graduate Student Worker, English PhD program

Mikayla Branz, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MPH program

Mason Breitzig, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Eric Brown, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy

Rachel Brown, Assistant Professor, Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Mariah Byrne, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work and Olin Business School MSW/MBA program

Luke Cai, Undergraduate Student

Courtney Cantwell, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Shefali Chandra, Associate Professor, Department of History

Aurora Chen, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Philip Chen, Undergraduate Student

Victoria Chen, Undergraduate Student

Martin Cheng, Undergraduate Student

Ami Chiu, Graduate Student Worker, Washington University School of Medicine and Brown School of Social Work MD/MPH program

Noah Cohan, Lecturer, American Culture Studies

Teresita Costadoat, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Patrick Cruitt, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Melissa Deal, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Omar Delannoy-Bruno, Graduate Student, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences MMMP program

Bethany Dixon, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Michael Dizon, Undergraduate Student

Jody Doran, Senior Lecturer, Romance Languages and Literatures

Kate Douglas, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD program

Linda G. Eissenberg, Assistant Professor, Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine

Ilia Esrig, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Deena Essa, Graduate Student Worker, Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies MA program

Eric Failes, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Madelyn Frumkin, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Cindy Galvan, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Patrick Gardner, Undergraduate Student

Michael Ge, Undergraduate Student

Braveheart Gillani, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Paula Godoy, Graduate Student, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences CSB program

Trisha Grewal, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work, MPH program

Ben Groebe, Graduate Student Worker, Physics PhD program

Ethan Gutmann-Goldstein, Washington University alumnus, AB 2017, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Emmanuel A. Gyimah, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Anjum Hassan, Associate Professor, Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine

Ericka V. Hayes, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine

Jayde Homer, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Jiawei Hu, Undergraduate Student

Paul Huang, Washington University alumnus, BBA 2017

Zach Jaeger, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD program

Hannah Jia, Undergraduate Student

Sara John, Executive Director, St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America

Alexandra E. Johnson, Esq., AJ Legal Services LLC

Joonmo Kang, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work PhD program

Zach Kassman, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Priya Katti, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Sara Katz, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Chika Kawamoto, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Nicholas Kinberg, Undergraduate Student

Emma Knapp, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Clayton Knittel, Undergraduate Student

Drew Kochman, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Emilee Kotnik, Graduate Student, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences MGG program

Jeffrey Kurtzman, Professor, Department of Music

Tomas Lagunas Jr, Graduate Student, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences MGG PhD program

Katelyn Lamb, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Isidro Landa, Graduate Student, Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, Social and Personality program

Roxy Lawrence, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MSP program

Alex Le, Undergraduate Student

Long Le-Khac, Assistant Professor, Department of English

Amy Lee, Undergraduate Student

Christina Lee, Undergraduate Student

Michael Lee, Undergraduate Student

Stephen H. Legomsky, John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus, School of Law

Meme Lertiendumrong, Undergraduate Student

Alex Lipsey, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MPH program

Doyle Lokitiyakul, Undergraduate Student

Katherine Lopez, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Kit Lord, Undergraduate Student

Leslie Liu, Undergraduate Student

Antonio Maldonado, Chairman, Hispanic Leaders Group of Greater St. Louis

Adam Manfredi, Graduate Student Worker, Comparative Literature and Japanese Language and Literature PhD program

Ginger Marcus, Professor of the Practice of Japanese Language, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures

Marvin Marcus, Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Alejandro Martinez, Washington University alumnus, AB 2017, MSW 2018

William J. Maxwell, Professor of English and African and African American Studies

Merry May, Undergraduate Student

Hannah Maybrier, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Charles McCrory, Graduate Student, Creative Writing MFA program

Trent McDonald, Graduate Student Worker, English PhD program

Patricia Navarro McGee, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy & Orthopaedic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine

Claire McVey, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Kelsey Mead, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Katie Meola, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Katie Meyer, Assistant Professor of Practice and Director, Immigration Law Clinic, School of Law

Melanie Micir, Assistant Professor, Department of English

Signe Midelfort-Vognar, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Angela Miller, Professor, Art History and Archaeology Department

Debra Miller, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Jessica Milligan, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Ian Mooney, Graduate Student Worker, Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies MA program

Julia Mosebach, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Aishwarya Nagar, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Tana Neels, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Jessica Nicosia, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Marina Nogueira, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD program

Michael O’Bryan, Lecturer, Department of English

Peter Ogunniran, Graduate Student Worker, Germanic Languages and Literatures PhD program

Sofia Orelo, Undergraduate Student, President of ALAS

Sara Paracha, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Craig Pearson, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD program

Tim M. Peterson, Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine

Gabrielle Pfund, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Marilyn Piccirillo, Graduate Student, Psychological and Brain Sciences PhD program

Miriam Pierce, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Ashley Pribyl, Graduate Student Worker, Musicology PhD program

Marissa Price, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Rumi Kato Price, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine

Cole Pruitt, Graduate Student Worker, Chemistry PhD program

Elizabeth Richardson, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Maryse N. Rios-Hernandez, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MPH program

Josie Robinson, Undergraduate Student

Erika Rodriguez, Graduate Student Worker, Comparative Literature PhD program

Jessica Rosenfeld, Associate Professor, Department of English

Hannah Rosenthal, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Santiago Rozo Sánchez, Graduate Student Worker, Spanish and Latin American Studies PhD program

Byeongju Ryu, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Robert Sagastume, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MSP program

Shivangi Sah, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Desiree Sacco, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences

Angelica L. Santiago Gonzalez, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Jackson Sarter, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Ariela Schachter, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology

Gillian Schivone, Assistant Professor of OB/GYN, Washington University School of Medicine

Elaine Schramm, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Leah Schultz, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Han Ju Seo, Undergraduate Student

Angela Serwin, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MPH program

Annie Sha, Undergraduate Student

Ethan Shen, Undergraduate Student

Sarah Siegel, Graduate Student Worker, History PhD program

Drew Sinha, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD/PhD program

Hannah Smith, Undergraduate Student

Rachel Smith, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Christine Sneve, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Rachel Sobotka, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Alan Soetikno, Washington University alumnus, BS 2017

Gina Marie Storch, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Amanda Sy, Undergraduate Student

Rita Taylor, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Eylul Tekin, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Whitney Thiry, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MAED program

Kristin Thompson, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Meghan Tao, Undergraduate Student

Natasha Tonge, Graduate Student, Psychological & Brain Sciences PhD program

Reverend Feliz Tovar

Akiko Tsuchiya, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Dept. of Romance Languages & Literatures

Emily Uecker, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW/MAED program

Cristian Vargas, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Julianne Walker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Rebecca Wanzo, Associate Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Grace Ward, Graduate Student Worker, Anthropology PhD program

Erica Wei, Undergraduate Student

Sojourner White, Graduate Student Worker, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Emma Wong, Undergraduate Student

Jackie Wong, Undergraduate Student

Olivia Wright, Undergraduate Student

Sophia Wu, Undergraduate Student

Iris Xia, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Menghan Xiao, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Bao Nhia Xiong, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Emily Xu, Undergraduate Student

Katherine Yang, Undergraduate Student

Jessica Yew, Undergraduate Student Worker

Jenny Yin, Undergraduate Student

Alexandra Zdonczyk, Medical Student, Washington University School of Medicine MD program

Junjie Zhang, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Sierra Zheng, Graduate Student, Brown School of Social Work MSW program

Wilson Zhong, Undergraduate Student

Together we are the Washington University United Immigration Task Engine (WU-UNITE).