UC Santa Barbara’s Faculty Equity Advisors and Associate Deans of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosted a forum on immigration, where faculty discussed ways to support undocumented students and resources for those students.
The forum featured guest speakers from Undocumented Student Services, 805 UndocuFund and UCSB’s graduate division, as well as a know your rights workshop. Jack Dindia / Daily Nexus
The event was held on March 3 in the McCune Conference Room from 5-7 p.m. with roughly 40 people in attendance, many of whom were faculty.
The forum was organized by Julie Carlson, an English professor, associate dean and faculty equity advisor of humanities and fine arts, with Diane Fujino, an Asian American studies professor and associate dean and faculty equity advisor of social sciences. It featured guest speakers from Undocumented Student Services, 805 UndocuFund and UCSB’s graduate division, as well as a “Know our Rights” workshop from the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center.
Fujino emphasized resources for undocumented students, per President Donald Trump’s executive order signed on Jan. 20 intended to crack down on illegal immigration across the country.
“There are a lot of immigrants on this campus, right? And there are bits of concern on people’s minds, in Santa Barbara itself, this is a concern. And so there’s any number of issues that we can address, but we just felt like this was one of the ones that’s really important and that we can do things like provide information, legal information, that can be helpful to people,” Fujino said.
Carlson spoke on the importance of this forum, given the “current administration’s discourse about immigration” being “total misinformation.”
“It’s important because it’s on a lot of people’s minds, and there’s both misinformation, disinformation and some information. So we’re trying to not respond to every piece of information that we hear or every proposal that comes out, but at the same time, people are anxious; students are anxious; faculty are anxious,” Carlson said.
The forum began with Assistant Director of Undocumented Student Services (USS) Gemma Garcia giving a presentation on USS, which provides support for undocumented students as well as students from mixed-status families or refugee backgrounds. Services provided include paid internships, scholarships, mental health support in collaboration with Counseling and Psychological Services and more.
“A part of our vision is to help students grow and thrive within the UCSB community, and especially achieve their academic, professional and personal goals. Undocumented students have always faced unique challenges due to their immigration status. That is not something new that emerged [from the] presidential election [that] took place in January,” Garcia said.
UC Immigration Staff Attorney Amber Spring gave a “Know Your Rights” presentation, where she highlighted the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center (UC IMM), a nonprofit immigration firm meant to service undocumented UC students and immediate family members. In this presentation, Spring discussed how to identify certain immigration agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) and Customs and Border Patrol in case a student has a run-in.
Spring also highlighted recommended protocols for undocumented students if they have encounters with these immigration agencies, such as exercising their right to remain silent, staying calm and staying in private areas on campus. While UCSB is a public area, meaning anybody is allowed on campus, certain areas are not open to the public, such as an in-session class.
According to Spring, there haven’t been any recent I.C.E sightings on campus, nor was there any during Donald Trump’s previous presidential term. However, the forum encouraged undocumented students to be prepared for a situation where an immigration agency comes on campus.
“As uncomfortable as it gets, I think it doesn’t hurt to have protocols. It doesn’t hurt to plan for worst case scenarios and be ready and prepared for the worst case scenario. But it’s also really important to remind students in the community that I.C.E hasn’t been on campus. That’s just something that we’re preparing for worst case scenario,” Garcia said.
Primitiva Hernandez, the executive director of 805 UndocuFund, an organization meant to give support to local undocumented residents, discussed the “805 Immigrant Rapid Response Network” program, which is meant to provide support to undocumented people “facing immigration enforcement” in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.
Roughly 10% of Santa Barbara and Ventura’s population are undocumented, according to 805 UndocuFund’s website. The program allows community members to call their hotline to report potential I.C.E. activity in their area to inform undocumented residents, as well as provide community safety and ensure “civil rights are upheld.”
“When we stand together, no one stands alone. We understand that these are difficult times,” Hernandez said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 7 of the Mar. 6, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
