Federal agents can operate in public areas near NYU, admin say
NYU administrators said in a Monday universitywide email that university protections for noncitizen students don’t extend to public areas outside of NYU buildings, and federal agents “may conduct operations in them without our consent — or awareness.”
General Counsel Mathew Varughese, university life senior vice president Jason Pina and global service senior associate vice president Sherif Barsoum, also reiterated that law enforcement officials are required to present a warrant or subpoena if they “wish to enter NYU facilities for immigration-related enforcement purposes.”
The administrators said that campus safety officers are trained to follow this protocol, and that information of individuals in the NYU community will not be shared voluntarily.
“The university relies on its standard process for receiving, reviewing and responding to such requests,” the administrators wrote. “That standard process includes the university providing notification to a student of such a request, except in cases where the university is legally prohibited from doing so.”
The email comes nearly two weeks after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid near Lafayette Hall led to the detainment of nine street vendors of African descent as part of its “intelligence-driven enforcement operation” targeting counterfeit sellers. NYU spokesperson John Beckman said that NYU members were not affected.
The administrators directed community members to sources including the Office of Global Services and the Immigrant Defense Initiative, which provides two attorneys who offer legal services to NYU members and their immediate families.
NYU, host to more international students than any other university in the U.S., also said in February that they will “comply with the law” amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student visas. This statement followed a petition signed by 1,000 students which called for ICE to be removed from an NYU Law career fair.
Contact Eva Mundo at emundo@nyunews.com.
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