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Since returning to San Diego City College for the spring semester, engineering student Logan Mendoza Venegas noticed one of his friends would take pictures whenever they hung out.
When he asked why, his friend replied, “Dude, I don’t know when it’s the last time I’m going to see you.”
Mendoza Venegas’ friend, an undocumented City College student, is one of the students the San Diego Community College District seeks to protect with its updated Administrative Procedure 3415.
The procedure, revised on Jan. 29, established strict guidelines for how the SDCCD community engages with immigration enforcement.
AP 3415 strictly prohibits the district and its employees from collaborating with immigration authorities.
According to the updated procedure, District Chancellor Greg Smith is the only person authorized to communicate with immigration enforcement authorities on campus. If he is unavailable, the district’s General Council is the only entity authorized to engage.
“If there’s a willful violation (of the procedure), just one instance could be severe enough that it could warrant termination,” Smith said in a Jan. 29 meeting with the District Governance Council.
The district also created “white cards,” similar to the “red cards” circulating among community members. The cards are designed to give users a direct script to use with immigration enforcement officials if they arrive on campus.
Undocumented Resource Center Coordinator Magaly Corro Flores said she worried for students after the election, but AP 3415 has been a relief.
“The updated procedure shows that the district is very supportive of our student population and they’re showing it with their actions,” she said.
DGC members Richard Weinroth and Jim Mahler motioned to approve the procedure with one reading.
Mendoza Venegas said he’s seen a fair share of conservative professors on campus and that the explicit consequence of termination for cooperation with immigration enforcement is “the move.”
“It might make them mad, but it gives me comfort,” he said. “I know that they are not going to risk their jobs just to be racist.”
