San Diego City College has seen protests<\/a> of varying sizes, and San Diego State University has had hundreds of students participating in walkouts<\/a> and demonstrations<\/a> throughout the last couple of years.<\/p>\n As a result, many universities, including SDSU<\/a> and UCSD<\/a>, have implemented Time, Place and Manner policies that place guidelines on expression forms, but not on protest content. <\/p>\n Many campuses \u2014 including SDSU<\/a>, UCSD<\/a>, San Diego Community College District<\/a> and University of San Diego<\/a> \u2014 have also implemented ICE non-compliance policies.<\/p>\n Amid federal funding cuts for universities and President Trump\u2019s threats<\/a> to freeze funding for any campus that \u201callows illegal protests,\u201d campuses are feeling the heat. <\/p>\n Top universities across the nation have negotiated<\/a> with the new administration, implementing new policies and spending allocations that align with federal values to receive their funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n California is feeling the heat <\/strong><\/p>\n California as a whole is also feeling the heat, especially after the Sept. 8 Supreme Court ruling<\/a> that overturned a Los Angeles district judge\u2019s order that blocked ICE from targeting individuals based on ethnicity, language, workplace and location.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Sept. 10, the Trump administration cut $350 million in grant funding<\/a> for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, of which SDSU is one of 167 in California.<\/p>\n As a result, many SDSU students said their university is keeping a little too quiet, with some expressing concerns about potential ICE presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know they say that they\u2019ll stop them from coming on campus, [that] it\u2019s illegal. But, people have said that before and stuff is still happening, so that\u2019s still a concern,\u201d second-year psychology student William Reyes said. \u201cLike I still know it might happen, but I think there are countermeasures for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Reyes said changing immigration policies has impacted his extended family, and he thinks the university could be doing more to support students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey do send the emails, but a lot of students don\u2019t really check their emails and even then, the emails that they do send kind of get lost,\u201d he said. \u201cI do remember there was, sometime last year, that there was nine or so students that got deported. And we were never told about that, I had to learn through a professor who shared that story with the class.\u201d<\/p>\n While deportations were not confirmed, four SDSU students did have their F-1 visas revoked and exchange records deleted, the Office of the President confirmed in an April 10 campuswide email. On April 25, SDSU told news outlets that three of the four visas had been reinstated.<\/p>\n Three days prior, at UCSD, five students had their F-1 visas revoked<\/a> and a sixth was deported. Later that month, the revocation number rose to 35, but all were reactivated<\/a> shortly after.<\/p>\n Reyes applauded the various student protests that were organized last year, but said he hasn\u2019t been hearing many immigration conversations around campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE and immigration policy are topics of conversation at school<\/strong><\/p>\n For fourth-year aerospace engineering student Kiersten Funk, ICE and immigration policy are a big topic of conversation in her classes, friend groups and at her old job.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my friends are immigrants. I come from a family of immigrants, so it\u2019s just definitely a topic of concern for everybody,\u201d Funk said. \u201c\u2026 ICE is targeting Mexican immigrants. I\u2019m not Mexican myself, but a lot of people do think that I am. And so sometimes, I\u2019m subject to some of the same hostility towards that demographic. So definitely my heart goes out because it does suck.\u201d<\/p>\n Funk admitted she doesn\u2019t pay too much attention to the many university emails, which is the main method SDSU uses to update the community and inform them of their rights, in addition to documents available on its website and staff available at resource centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019ve received too many [emails] informing students on their rights. I\u2019ve heard students informing other students of their rights,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the spring, I was hearing student leaders in clubs and such informing their members that they don\u2019t have to answer any questions they don\u2019t want to, they don\u2019t have to answer to ICE if they knock on their door.\u201d<\/p>\n While she wasn\u2019t on campus much in the spring, she applauded the student and local protests.<\/p>\n <\/strong>\u201cI think that it\u2019s great what they\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cThe ones that I\u2019ve seen, they\u2019ve been very peaceful and it\u2019s just a group of people standing up for what they believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that day, the first protest of the new academic year commenced on campus, organized by student advocacy group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan, or M.e.Ch.A.<\/p>\n \u201cADELA, ADELA, HEAR OUR PLEA. YOUR SILENCE IS COMPLICITY,\u201d echoed through campus on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n \u201cShame on SDSU,\u201d the protest was titled in a social media promotional flyer<\/a>. The caption of the post read: \u201c\u2026 The Supreme Court has deemed racial profiling as a \u2018relevant factor\u2019 for ICE agents to stop someone. While SDSU administration may be silent, we the students will not allow our communities to be attacked!!\u201d<\/p>\n M.E.Ch.A. Co-Chair and fourth-year criminal justice student Karla Chaj-Perez said she is unsure why SDSU has not spoken about the recent Supreme Court ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSDSU has, for the past year, invited Homeland Security, invited ICE to their career fairs, and it makes the students feel unsafe,\u201d Chaj-Perez said in an interview. \u201cImagine crossing the border every single day, being on that trolley for like two hours, and then you come here to see someone who might detain you. I have a lot of empathy for those students, and wanting to stand up for them and standing with them so that they don\u2019t have to be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_0255.jpg\")
<\/a>Karla Chaj-Perez speaks at M.E.Ch.A. protest. (Photo by Calista Stocker\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n