ARIZONA EDUCATION NEWS

ASU Republican group calling for deportations on campus receives backlash from fellow students

Jan 31, 2025, 4:18 PM | Updated: 4:29 pm

TEMPE, Ariz. — An ASU Republican group is urging students to report suspected undocumented migrant peers to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The event hosted Friday morning by College Republicans United (CRU) was shared online and quickly led to backlash from Democratic lawmakers and students.

The notice called for mass deportations to begin, indicating a desire to see a massive increase compared to both the Biden and Trump administrations. It also said “There are also many DACA recipients who should be sent back.”

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipients are legally allowed in the United States as public universities such as ASU do not require students to be U.S. citizens.

Additionally in Arizona, voters approved Prop 308 in 2022. It makes undocumented students eligible for state financial aid and in-state tuition.

ASU Republican group met with student backlash

Before the event began, immigrant and DACA advocacy group Aliento had organized their own event in response.

Aliento founder and DACA recipient Reyna Montoya talked with fearful students just a short distance away from the comparatively smaller CRU event.

“They only want to get their degree and that’s why we wanted to show with a lot of love and compassion,” Montoya said. “To let them know Dreamers, we’re Americans, we’re your classmates and we just want to get an education.”

Students approached Montoya, asking her for help or assistance in navigating a campus where peers may be looking for reasons to report classmates to ICE.

The organizer for the College Republicans United event verbally sparred with reporters trying to gain clarification on what CRU is telling its 30 members to do.

At one point, the unnamed organizer was asked to share his message to ASU’s student body, to which he repeatedly replied, “Read the sign.”

“This is a publicly funded university, it uses federal grant money,” the organizer said. “American institutions should be serving American students.”

He said members are not being directed to confront or target specific students but instead generally be aware of criminal activity that could be reported to ICE.

Neither he nor another CRU member present gave a number of undocumented students they could approximate were attending ASU.

Instead, a CRU member who only identified himself as Kevin pointed to border crossings during Biden’s administration as evidence undocumented migrants are attending ASU.

The unnamed organizer did say the main point of the event was to draw attention to CRU’s belief the Trump administration is currently not strong enough on its immigration and border policies.

ASU decried the original event in a statement.

Encouraging ASU students to make indiscriminate complaints to law enforcement about fellow students is not in keeping with the principles which underlie our academic community. We are here to teach and learn — not to engage in self-aggrandizing conduct meant solely to generate as much media attention and controversy as possible.

But we must also recognize that we live in a country that protects individual free speech, even speech that is hurtful. The Dean of Students and ASU Police are available to assist any student who is threatened or harassed.

ASU alumnus and veteran David Lucier joined students today in opposing the CRU event.

He may not be a student anymore, but Lucier says he wanted to stand up for immigrants at the university.

“I’ve fought three wars for this country and to see that, it just boils my blood,” Lucier said.

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ASU Republican group calling for deportations on campus receives backlash from fellow students