Staff Writer- August von Seth

Editor in Chief- Grace LaTourelle

Soren Sackreiter

On Jan. 16th, Gustavus President John Volin sent an e-mail to students titled ‘Resources and Reminders.’ In it, the head of the college described “every new day in Minnesota” as one of violence and unease against students’ loved ones, causing them to “carry heavy burdens.” The message went on to list the variety of resources available to students in distress, including the Chaplains’ Office, the Counseling Center, and Health Services. 

In addition to reminding the student body of pre-existing options for personal wellbeing, Volin’s e-mail mentioned two measures planned to ameliorate student anxieties: altered building opening hours and an open forum chaired by leading faculty members.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a branch of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A law enforcement agency created in the wake of 9/11, its self-professed mission is to conduct criminal investigations and enforce immigration law. Recently, the activities of ICE have come under global scrutiny following the death of Renee Good, a bystander who was killed at the hands of a federal agent in central Minneapolis. 

Against the backdrop of the DHS-dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” there has been an increased number of such officials in southern Minnesota, including in St. Peter, where a man was detained on Jan. 13th in the La Mexicana Store and Restaurant, as reported by the St. Peter Herald.

While ICE is not directly addressed in the President’s Jan. 16th e-mail, it does appear in a similar message sent four days earlier, where Volin claims that the agency’s activity “impacts all of us.”

In an interview five days after his second message to students, Volin stated that the core values of the college are at play when responding to community concerns.

“The fact is that many families in Minnesota are struggling right now. As you know, we have five core values here: Excellence, Justice, Community, Faith, and Service. When we see people in our community struggling, and when some of our own community members are likely [to be] directly impacted, people carry fear and grief. I felt it was important to name that reality,” Volin said.

He painted a picture of an institution that remains in touch with its surrounding local community, offering as an example the swift creation of free lunch buffets in response to missing SNAP benefits, known colloquially as ‘food stamps.’ In terms of meeting immigration-related concerns, Volin explained that every student received a card in December containing information about how to navigate an encounter with an ICE agent. Titled ‘Safety Protocol Information,’ the piece of paper advises students to call Campus Safety and await their arrival without impeding their operations. It also details the ‘campus response process,’ a 5-step plan of action spelling out who contacts whom and what sort of college faculty is expected to arrive on scene.

“We’ve seen a lot of reactions and conflicting messages about how to respond to ICE, so I felt it was very important that we got our arms around that and made a consistent message for everyone,” Volin said. “My primary concern is the safety of our community, I just want to make sure everyone understands how we should respond in case something like that happens.”

In response to ICE’s recent detainment, some shops and restaurants in St. Peter have begun to lock their doors after customers enter their establishment. A preventative measure against the entry of federal agents, it is intended to afford local patrons peace of mind and a sense of safety whilst physically present in the business premises. 

For the foreseeable future, a total of four academic buildings will be locked between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. The same number will be restricted to students who have a Gustavus ID card. Volin stressed, however, that Gustavus has not jumped on the door-locking bandwagon in response to heightened ICE activity. Instead, he maintained that recent restrictions to building opening hours are the result of “fewer faculty and staff” on weekends and unspecified “struggles in the community” related to immigration.

“All buildings students will have access to, but after hours, when we’re limited on staff here, some buildings that don’t have access, students will need to call Campus Safety if they want to enter,” Volin said.

The last point in the President’s Jan. 16th letter, the open forum about current events, was held on Jan. 20th at 4:30 p.m. in the Center for Inclusive Excellence. One of the session’s speakers, Provost and Dean of the College Brenda Kelly drew a direct correlation to ICE when describing the thought process behind restricting access to academic halls. She also referred to a common deliberation on the subject among regional provosts. This prompted a brief, student-initiated discussion about deficient transparency in official communications.

An anonymous student explained that while the response may be confusing to some, there is a possible reasoning behind it from administration. 

“From what I understand from the forum, the reason that so much of this has not been clearly communicated to students was because the administration fears that a large reaction could put a target on Gustavus and invite federal attention that would be unsafe for some community members,” they said. 

“Students who don’t understand or are concerned about this are encouraged to reach out to the Chaplains’ or Dean of Students Offices, Counseling Center, Center for Inclusive Excellence, and Health Services,” said the anonymous student.

Following the hour-long assembly, Kelly and Vice Provost for Student Life and Dean of Students Charlie Potts sat down for a post-facto interview.

“The new development is the presence of a significant number of ICE agents in Minnesota. In December, activity was happening nationally, but now there are more agents in Minnesota than there were then,” Kelly said.

“And now that the semester has started and students are back, we knew people might have new questions or concerns. Some may have been thinking about these issues while away from campus. So the timing made sense: everyone is back, so let’s have a conversation,” Potts said.

While the meeting primarily concerned optimal conduct for international students—whether they should leave campus, have administrative documents on hand, or readily inform others of their legal status—there were nonetheless a significant number of U.S.-born attendees, too.

“I wouldn’t say there has been a higher level of concern specifically from international students. The students who have come to me—though not many—are concerned either for themselves, for a friend, or for someone else. It’s a general concern,” Kelly said.

Potts speculated that increased coverage in news and social media has caused a spike in interest in ICE and the impact the agency’s operations have on individuals in the United States.

“It’s dominating coverage, and it’s only an hour away in the Twin Cities. That explains why we’re hearing more discussion,” Potts said.

On the topic of whether meetings like this are intended to reduce profiling on the part of federal immigration agencies, shield Gustavus students with ambiguous legal statuses, or counteract dubious professional conduct in law enforcement, Kelly explained that faculty is unaware of the intentions of the federal government. 

“I cannot speak as to why this is happening at this point in time, what the intentions are through these actions. Because the college is responding to the action but is not creating the action…What we’re trying to do as leaders of the college is responding to a situation that we don’t have control over but we’re currently responding to law enforcement presence,” Kelly shared. 

Chaplain Ben Hilding at the Chaplains’ Office, an officially designated responding department in the event that ICE appears on campus, believes that protesting is one of many possible reactions people of faith may have to current developments.

“Prayer is a faithful response. Protesting is a faithful response. Conversations among people trying to understand what this means for them are faithful responses,” Hilding said.

To Hilding, “the manner of the presence of federal forces in Minnesota” is a sign of a struggling country grappling with a situation that raises moral questions. 

“I don’t personally feel like I have all the answers, but as a chaplains’ office, we want to be a place where these questions are discerned and where we can pray. If people are feeling uneasy or afraid, I want to be available for that,” Hilding said.

Hilding highlighted his own ancestral background, his great‑great‑great‑grandfather immigrating from Sweden in the 19th century, and recounts a not-so-distant memory.

“Ten years ago, in a graduate class at Augsburg, we held an immigration law debate. One side argued from a conservative perspective, the other from a liberal one. Both sides approached the debate with compassion and mercy for the immigrant. The sticking point was whether sufficient infrastructure existed to support immigrants responsibly. Both Republican and Democratic concerns centered on compassion and mercy,” Hilding said. “For me, that remains of utmost importance and should drive current conversations: compassion and mercy for the immigrant.”

One of the attendees at the open forum this Monday was Dorothy Zhang, a Senior and an international student from China. Until very recently, she had not heard of ICE at all—a fact that she attributes to not using social media and habitually staying out of politics. That was, until her friends filled her in on developments in the area related to immigration and law enforcement. Still, some confusion persists.

“I still don’t have a good sense of what’s going on. After talking with my friend, I looked up what ICE stands for. When I saw ‘Immigration and Customs Enforcement,’ it didn’t make sense to me. My understanding from China is that a similar group patrols the borders, and the only people they might shoot at are drug dealers trying to bring drugs into the country,” Zhang said.

In spite of—or perhaps because of—the sheer scale of current events, Zhang remains mostly unbothered. She is not worried about being detained by ICE.

“Not very. My family would call this ‘God’s problem,’ not our problem. There isn’t much I can do, and it’s not something caused by me. Whatever comes, I’ll deal with it. I am worried about the detention part only because I don’t think their bathroom situation would work with my OCD routine. That’s the part that concerns me. Otherwise, it’s fine,” Zhang said.

An anonymous student who is an executive board member of Organization of Latin American Students described their experience collaborating with other student organizations to address community concerns. 

“It definitely is scary, I’m really grateful for our support from President Volin. Especially with locking down the buildings, it ensures safety for us if any federal agents were to come on campus,” the student said. 

Kelly and Potts both agreed that protesting, regardless of legal status, is a valid form of voicing one’s opposition to political decision-making, though gathering in large groups always carries a certain element of risk.

“I believe in freedom of speech, and I believe in individual rights, to exhibit their civil rights, exhibit their democratic rights,” Kelly said. “So, I as a person at an institution of higher education in the United States, am not going to say ‘you can, or you cannot do that.’”

Similar to the protests happening across the country, some Gustavus students have promoted two opportunities for protests on Friday, one in Minneapolis at 2 p.m. and the other in St. Peter. 

This week, Gustavus student Alex Bur helped to distribute fliers announcing that apart from the protest on Friday, there’s a state-wide call of a day of “no shopping, no school, and no work” in response to ICE activity. 

“ICE has brought chaos and violence to our home. Officers are not properly trained for their role or held accountable for their actions,” Bur said. “Protesting against ICE is a tricky matter…large protests by design draw attention that may lead to the deployment of more officers in our community. Minneapolis is already flooded with agents that have killed and taken members of their community.”

The St. Peter protest, organized by a group of students, will take place at Minnesota Square Park at 12 p.m.

“We…would like to open an invitation to anyone interested! If you are willing and able, we would encourage you to join and express yourself and what you believe in!” Senior Beckett Sherman said. “…This is a peaceful protest and plans to be conducted in that manner.”