From the beginning of the 2025 spring semester, student activists at CSUSM have been advocating for immigrant rights and the safety and well-being of the undocumented and mixed-status CSUSM community. These activists have been met with disciplinary action and Time, Place, Manner (TPM) violations via letters from the Dean of Students Jason Schrieber and Student Life and Involvement Center (SLIC) for their February 20 protest outside the Social Mobility Symposium. 

On February 20, student activist groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) demanded CSUSM be declared a sanctuary campus and therefore free from ICE. Students for Quality Education (SQE), community members, and California Faculty Association (CFA) members attended in solidarity. 

In SJP and MEChA’s view, a sanctuary campus means CSUSM would ensure no cooperation with ICE and refuse to share student information which would maintain the safety and well-being of undocumented and mixed-status students. 

Across the state, immigrants have been targeted by ICE and this reality creates a climate of fear at CSUSM, where many students and community members are undocumented or mixed-status. 

At the symposium, student activists chanted during Chancellor Garcia’s speech to call attention to their demands.

According to SJP members, CSUSM President Neufeldt spoke with protestors at one point during the symposium and agreed to a meeting on February 27, the following Thursday. 

However, upon learning that SJP and MEChA also planned a demonstration on February 27, the Dean of Students cancelled the meeting and informed the groups of President Neufeldt’s unavailability. 

At the February 27 demonstration, or “solidarity circle,” several passerby students and staff, along with SQE, joined SJP and MEChA. San Diego Poet Laureate and CSUSM Professor Jason Magabo Perez read the poem “We” by Deborah A. Miranda:

At that demonstration, the CSUSM Republican Club appeared at the end of the plaza with a large sign: end foreign wars, end mass immigration, America first. Almost all members waved large American flags. 

When the Chronicle asked for a comment, the club president directed the Chronicle to the vice president who stated the importance of the club’s first amendment right. They made no further comments on the club’s presence at SJP and MEChA’s demonstration.

The next day, February 28, SJP and MEChA received emails from Tyler Vuillemot at SLIC about their alleged violations of the student conduct code. Individual students and community members, received emails from the Dean of Students Jason Schrieber that detailed their alleged TPM policy violations during the February 20 protest. 

According to an SJP member, at least seven individual students received TPM violations that threatened disciplinary action such as suspension or expulsion. According to CSUSM’s SQE, at least three of those students worked on campus. One student named Amber Arenas was fired from her job at the USU and her campus internship.

“To have my bosses cry with me on the phone because they can’t do anything… It’s one thing to silence us in these protests, but it’s another to silence me in this way,” Arenas said to the CFA.

CSUSM administration may issue sanctions against SJP and MEChA due to their violations. Sanctions range from an “educational conversation” to the organization being removed. The severity of the sanctions may be determined by a hearing.

In retaliation, staff and faculty group UndocuAllies released a statement condemning the administration’s actions against students and called for administration to drop violation charges against SJP, MEChA, students and community members. UndocuAllies demanded that CSUSM administration support every student’s right to free speech and every student’s right to challenge their university. 

“Administrators, however, seem to be afraid of the federal government as well as their own students,” said Marcelo Garzo Montalvo to the CFA. Montalvo is a CFA member, CSUSM professor, and advisor to SJP. 

Montalvo referred to the White House’s attacks on immigrants and immigrant rights. In Trump’s first week in office, he signed 10 executive orders on immigration while promising mass deportations and heightened border security.

“We are teaching in the people’s university,” said Michelle Ramos Pellicia to the CFA. Pellicia is the president of the San Marcos chapter of the CFA. “We defend students, and we stand with students,” she added.

The CFA has and will continue to meet with administrators about the TPM policy.

SJP and MEChA have continued to hold meetings after receiving TPM violations. CSUSM’s SQE are planning a walkout on March 24 to protest the TPM violations, SJP and MEChA members will join.