Penn State Nixes ‘Sanctuary Campus’ Plan

One of the largest universities in the country, Pennsylvania State University, will not become a sanctuary campus for illegal immigrants to be shielded from federal immigration law.

In a new statement by Penn State President Eric Barron, the sanctuary campus proposal was shut down for holding “no legal validity” and for being “ambiguous,” according to The Inquirer.

“If used, it could imply that our university has the authority to exempt our campus from federal immigration laws, when in fact no university has that authority,” Barron said in the statement. “It also implies incorrectly a university is able to provide special protections to undocumented individuals beyond the law. That also is not the case.”

Barron’s statement shutting down talks of a sanctuary campus came after student social justice groups demanded the university be involved in shielding illegal immigrant students from federal immigration law.

The decision by Penn State to not accept the sanctuary campus status also comes after State Rep. Jerry Knowles (R-Pa) announced that he would be introducing legislation to strip funding from any sanctuary campuses in the state.

If Penn State had taken up the banner of a being sanctuary campus, the university would have risked nearly $300 million in state funds per year.

Neighboring universities, though, have designated themselves sanctuary campuses.

Expensive, private colleges such as the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College have already pledged their sanctuary campus policy, announcing that federal immigration officials would be barred from campus without a warrant and faculty and staff are not to comply with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The moves by some universities to try to exempt themselves from federal immigration law come as President-Elect Donald Trump is set to enforce the country’s immigration system.

John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.