Multiple student groups joined by local state representatives marched across the NMSU campus to demand that the administration stop allowing federal law enforcement to recruit at the school.
Around 30 people walked from Corbett Center Student Union to the NMSU administration building at Hadley Hall to deliver their demands and hold a brief rally.
The groups Graduate Workers United, Student for Justice in Palestine and NMSU Dream Team led the demonstration while State Representatives Angelica Rubio and Micaela Lara Cadena were also at the event.
Their list of demands that were delivered to the administration office included requiring a judicial warrant for any immigration official to come on campus as well as stopping those officials from participating in recruiting events, stemming from protests that were held in February when those officials were part of a career day at NMSU.
Alberto Del Campo, an organizer with the Students for Justice in Palestine, said that these need to be fulfilled to make the school more welcoming.
“This is not something that we are going to budge on. We want a campus that has ethical policies,” Del Campo said.
State Representative Micaela Lara Cadena echoed these demands and showed her support for the students.
“As I have heard this discourse and debate over the last couple of months, I think their demands have moral clarity and we should be attentive to their asks. What these students have made clear is that every student on campus, every worker on campus, every visitor to this incredible institution deserves an expectation of safety and that we together get to create what safety means,” Lara Cadena said.
In an email to the university's staff after the February protests, NMSU President Valerio Ferme said the school has to follow The Solomon Amendment which requires “a university receiving federal funding provide military and Department of Homeland Security recruiters access equal to any other employer.”
The email continued by highlighting the federal funding that NMSU receives saying “We cannot ban employers whose missions some find objectionable without violating federal law and jeopardizing the financial foundation that supports our entire community.”
After the demonstration, NMSU provided a comment acknowledging the letter that was delivered by the demonstrators saying that it will be reviewed by the schools leadership and will “respond through appropriate institutional channels.”
NMSU also says that they will “remain dedicated to fostering a campus environment where every student, faculty member, and employee feels safe, supported, and valued. We will continue that work in dialogue with our community.”
