How Should Colleges Handle Undocumented Students?
With more institutions of higher education admitting undocumented students, security and law enforcement professionals will have to address potential conflicts between campus policies and local and federal laws.
Greater numbers of U.S. universities are now admitting undocumented students than ever before. That’s according to an article I just read in CNNMoney. Although the article focuses on the academic and administrative side of the issue, campus law enforcement and security folks will also be impacted.
How will campus police handle these individuals if college and university policies differ from state or federal law? I know that traditional law enforcement agencies struggle with this issue all of the time. In order to encourage members of their communities to report crime, department policies might discourage officers from investigating the immigration status of undocumented persons … a practice that might be in violation of local or national laws.
Could campus law enforcement and security personnel soon experience similar conflicts?
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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