Donald Trump

Letter Requests St. Mary's College Become a Sanctuary Campus

Students and faculty at St. Mary's College in Moraga weighed in on the subject of President-elect Donald Trump and his immigration policies by sending a letter to the college president requesting he make St. Mary's a sanctuary campus.

The letter was signed by dozens of students, staff and faculty and delivered Tuesday. Many students supported the effort.

"I think it’s nice to have something that sends a message that we’re a community we’re together," student Kyla Cole said.

Another student named Andriana agreed, saying: "We don’t really know what’s going to happen. Just keeping that sense of comfort in a time of not really knowing."

The letter asks the administration to investigate with urgency what it would take to make the campus a sanctuary for its community members who face imminent deportation. It cited some students and their family members who live in fear of the consequences of a Trump presidency.

The St. Mary's administration responded to the letter Tuesday night by saying they take the safety of all community members seriously.

"It’s important for people to know that students should be safe on campus," the college said.

But not everyone agrees with the letter's content or the sanctuary effort. Ryan Busbee, a former student who is a part of the Republican club on campus, said the letter is completely unnecessary.

"This is not right; we don’t need to be offering a safe house to people who shouldn’t be here in the first place," he said. "There should be another set of people here, legally."

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