If ICE comes to WSU-V, you’d be on your own

If federal ICE agents were to conduct arrests on campus, don’t look to WSU Vancouver to intervene.

You’d be on your own.

Citing legal reasons for standing back, Vancouver’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Domanic Vanthom made clear to the VanCougar that his only duty — or that of another, if he is unavailable in the moment of arrests — would be to call the Washington State Attorney General’s office for guidance.

This stands in contrast to statements last week that anyone encountering ICE officers should immediately go to the Chancellor’s office, presumably for real-time assistance. WSU Vancouver still recommends students to direct ICE officers to the Chancellor’s Office.

According to Vanthom, the Attorney General once contacted would go to work verifying warrants for information on students — this amid a “pause” by the university on the release of information. The process could take a day or more, Vanthom said.  It remains unclear what would play out on the ground if ICE proceeded with arrests while the Attorney General made their determinations.

During this process, WSU is not involved in any part of verifying a warrant.

According to the WSU Guidance for Interacting with ICE Officers (for staff and faculty) webpage, WSU asks faculty not to attempt to verify it on their own, but to simply call the WSU division of the Attorney General’s office at (509) 335-2636.

This webpage says that, generally, federal enforcement officers can only require that they are allowed entry to a classroom in session with a specific type of warrant. That said, this webpage also lists examples of “public access” spaces which a federal officer could freely enter, with one such example being the “hallways in academic buildings.”

There is no indication that ICE raids are imminent at WSU Vancouver — only that they happen increasingly and by surprise nationally.

Vanthom underscored the university’s obligation for restraint.

“If a sheriff’s office were to arrest a person, student or otherwise in a public area, that’s not within my scope to intervene within that,” Vanthom said, saying the hypothetical example applies to a scenario involving an ICE agent as well.