By Vanessa Lim
The University of Maryland chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America is renewing its demands for the university to become a sanctuary campus, calling for stronger protections against federal immigration enforcement for immigrant and undocumented students.
YDSA released an updated list of six demands, including three new requests: for the university to prohibit immigration enforcement agencies from recruiting on campus, integrate an Immigration and Customs Enforcement watch service into the UMD Alert System and issue a statement committing to upholding the Maryland State Code.
The organization started campaigning for a sanctuary campus in fall 2025. The UMD administration has not agreed to implement the demands.
YDSA members confronted University President Darryll Pines during family weekend earlier this semester regarding their demands. Pines replied that “[The UMD administration] takes a neutral position on everything.”
Manasvi Tata, co-chair of YDSA’s communications committee and a junior double-majoring in psychology and social data science, described the importance of a sanctuary campus.
“We want the university to have policies and protections in place that serve to help undocumented students,” Tata said.
Tata added that President Pines’ neutral stance on the campaign implies a deeper meaning.
“Our organization’s take on it is that neutrality is inherently siding with the oppressor,” Tata said.
Outside of YDSA’s advocacy and campaign, uncertainty surrounding immigration policies has also raised concerns among international students navigating their education and future career goals.
Aashrit Sabbani, a first-year computer science master’s student, said uncertainty about immigration and work authorization policies has made it more difficult for international students to plan for jobs and internships. He said he supports efforts to protect students who worry about immigration enforcement.
“It’s definitely very stressful for international students because the [Trump] administration is not getting easier,” Sabbani said. “They’re just ramping up their investigations.”
Sabbani expressed his own stressful experience having difficulty obtaining an off-campus work permit.
“I did my master’s because I kind of wanted an opportunity to at least do an internship through this pathway, but as soon as I got into my program, the administration shut that down, and so now I’m doing my master’s without a way to work possibly in the semester,” Sabbani said.
Kaustubh Nimbalkar, a second-year master’s student studying cybersecurity engineering, said he worries that declaring UMD a sanctuary campus could lead to greater federal scrutiny of international students. He said he believes that the university’s neutral position could help avoid political conflict.
“The neutral stance is actually a good thing,” Nimbalkar said.
Nimbalkar and Sabbani both said they had not heard about the YDSA sanctuary campus demands before and that they personally do not feel threatened by federal immigration enforcement.
Tata described the UMD administration’s neutral stance as “cowardly” and said YDSA will continue organizing actions until the university addresses its demands.
“Any sort of silence, any sort of neutrality is complacency,” Tata said. “All of the administration’s actions so far have been anything but neutral.”
Featured Image: YDSA’s “die-in” protest on the steps of the Thomas V. Miller Jr. Administration Building on Oct 16. Photo courtesy of Manasvi Tata.