Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, recently declared that UC would not cooperate with federal officials on any immigration requests they might make.
She also ordered UC campus police not to cooperate with local, state or federal officials in any cases that may involve an illegal immigrant. Failure to cooperate with law enforcement is commonly referred to as obstruction of justice.
Fearmongering Napolitano, who refused to uphold immigration laws when she was Arizona’s governor or later as Homeland Security Department secretary, said UC would stick to its “deeply held conviction that all members of our community have the right to work, study and live safely and without fear.”
Timothy White, chancellor of California State University, and Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor-designate of the California Community Colleges, wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump that echoed Napolitano’s statement.
But here’s the thing about Napolitano’s misguided perspective, and why she’s unreasonably and ill-advisedly stoking fear in her estimated 2,400 illegal immigrant students. No one in the incoming Trump administration has even remotely suggested that they would be targeting college students in what the pro-immigration lobby likes to call “a roundup.”
In fact, Trump has said just the opposite. Repeatedly and in public forums, Trump has outlined his immigration agenda as first, deport the 2 million to 3 million criminal aliens, and second, secure the border with a wall, a fence or a combination of both.
After the first two have been accomplished, Trump said he would then turn his attention to what to do about the remaining illegal immigrants.
Obviously, to anyone except Napolitano and immigration activists, getting rid of criminals and securing the border will take a while, possibly most of Trump’s first term.
An immigration crisis that’s been building since Congress ignored the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act’s enforcement provisions won’t be resolved in a few months. Beyond that, the optics of deporting college students would reflect poorly on Trump, so it’s unlikely to be among his immigration goals.
A responsible leader — which Napolitano isn’t — would make an effort to reassure her charges that they should listen to what Trump has said now that the election is over, and to look at the probable timeline for him to accomplish his priority immigration objectives.
But for argument’s sake, let’s assume that one day the Trump administration decides that illegal immigrant students must be removed. After all, Trump might conclude that UC’s pledge to earmark $25.2 million for loans to illegal immigrants is unfair to the California taxpayers who fund them.
Or Trump could reason, as many California parents have, that the approximate 2,500 DREAMer students have unfairly displaced qualified citizen children eager to enroll in UC. If that happens, it would set up Napolitano toe-to-toe versus Trump, a battle she can’t win.
The federal government doesn’t need Napolitano’s approval or assistance to carry out immigration law. The feds can compel her to comply in many ways, including prosecuting her under the Immigration and Nationality Act’s Section 274, which makes knowingly harboring aliens a federal offense, a crime punishable by fines and/or jail sentences.
Napolitano’s bold posturing makes for good soundbites, but won’t hold up against a determined Trump administration.
— Joe Guzzardi is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) who now lives in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org, or follow him on Twitter: @joeguzzardi19. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.