Rutgers Students Shut Down Meeting Over Immigration

Rutgers - He didn't use the words "sanctuary campus."

Two dozen student protesters shut down a meeting Tuesday afternoon of the Rutgers Board of Governors, after Rutgers President Robert Barchi failed to declare New Jersey's state university a "sanctuary campus," according to a report on NJ.com.

Barchi began the meeting in Winants Hall Tuesday by saying the university would be a "safe haven" for students who are undocumented.

"We have a large undocumented student population here that we support and we encourage," Barchi said. "We are a safe haven for our immigrant students."

However, that was not good enough for the protesters, who said they wanted him to use the term "sanctuary campus" — with a promise to block federal immigration agents from removing undocumented immigrants from campus. Schools such as Columbia University and Wesleyan have used that term.

"Send a message of support to your students who desperately need it . . . I need to know my university will stand with me when I'm out on the street," Thais Marques, 22, told an NJ.com reporter. Marques said she is in the U.S. illegally, and she is studying political science at Rutgers-Newark.

Other schools have refused to use the term "sanctuary campus," such as Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber. He said it is meaningless, as schools have no right to declare themselves exempt from federal immigration laws. Read the full story, plus photos of the protest, on NJ.com.