On March 3, 2026, a coalition of campus groups, community organizations, and organized workers sent a letter to the University of Rochester's President, Sarah Mangelsdorf, expressing alarm at their unusually lax policy regarding the presence of immigration enforcement agents on its property: a space which includes not only classrooms and dorms but hospital environments, a wide range of workspaces, and places of worship. Despite being given ten days' time to respond and amend their policy and its being cosigned by many unionized campus workers, no written response was offered. On March 19, several policies were quietly updated by administrators, bringing the university's policy positions closer to community demands — while still falling short in key ways. There are still improvements — and clear commitments — to be made to ensure the maximum level of protections under the law for students, patients, and workers.
As things stand, immigration agencies could still be granted access to a wide range of spaces without judicial warrants and at the discretion of unspecified university administrators — exposing community members including students, patients, and workers to all sorts of violations of their rights. (You can find the University’s explanation of its policies here in a long, confusing, and often vaguely worded FAQ).
URochester's policies are far from standard practice in higher ed. Even with these latest changes, peer institutions both locally and nationally have clearer policies offering more robust protections for their students, patients, and workers, reliably demanding judicial warrants for any access by civil immigration authorities to private campus spaces. This means that the University of Rochester is capable of doing the same.
Along with the letter's other signatories, who include campus unions, faith organizations, and leaders in advocating for immigrants here in Rochester (all listed along with the initial letter here), we called upon the University to change their policy by implementing the changes outlined in the petition text below.
As the original letter states the University of Rochester "not only has an obligation to protect the campus and local community, but a clear mandate to do so." We encourage individuals and organizations — including small businesses here in Rochester — to sign on using the form below, amplifying this community's demand that the University do more to protect its students, workers, and patients, reflecting the values of the comunity it's a part of. We know from decades of experience: by standing together, we can win real changes for this community.
We encourage anyone reading to add their name to the petition below.
Dear University of Rochester Administrators:
I am writing to join fellow community members by calling for immediate changes to the University’s policy around the presence of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on its premises, which currently fails to firmly commit to requiring a judicial warrant for access to a wide range of campus spaces — exposing patients, workers, students, and community members to profiling, harassment, detention, and myriad other violations of their rights. The university has also routinely and even recently failed to communicate significant updates to its policy to its campus workers, students, and the broader community. Even with some impreovements as of March 19, 2026, the policy language as presently written fails to offer the clarity and level of protection members of the university community and surrounding region deserve.
As the initial letter (which you have yet to respond to) states: it is essential to ensure that all workers, students, and patients be safe and not left to live in fear of being targeted by an agency prone to discrimination, harassment, and violence. I am joining other signatories in calling upon the University to change their policy by doing the following (in line with the demands expressed in the coalition's initial letter dated March 3, 2026.)
- Firmly commit to requiring judicial warrants for access to University spaces
- Commit to honoring worker and patient privacy rights
- Define more clearly what is considered public and private space, and clearly mark those considered private
- Refuse all discretionary access to university property by members of immigration enforcement agencies to non-public spaces [no university officials should be granting such access without a warrant]
- Inform community members of all requests by federal agencies for personal information
- Inform community members of changes to university or federal immigration policy changes
- Utilize the AlertUR system to inform community members swiftly of any immigration enforcement presence on University property
- Engage in good faith dialogue with your students and workers, including campus unions, about ways to make campus safer for all community members
Given Rochester's status as a Sanctuary City and the University's role as the region's largest employer, you can still respond to concerned members of this community by protecting your own workers, students, and patients. By signing onto this petition, I join community groups, campus workers, faith leaders, and leading advocates for immigrants locally in demanding that the University of Rochester reflect the values of the community it's a part of.
Who's signing
