Students trying to pressure University of Cincinnati to be a ‘sanctuary campus’ to oppose ICE

By Henry Aleksandrov | May 26, 2026

Liberal students are trying to pressure the University of Cincinnati to oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by implementing sanctuary-city-like policies on campus.

Young Democratic Socialists of America is the student organization leading the effort to force university officials to oppose federal immigration officials, according to Campus Reform.

In a May 9 Instagram post, YDSA said that they are “fighting for a sanctuary campus” by forcing the university to stop cooperating with ICE.
According to the publicly available information, the university never cooperated with the federal immigration agency.

In the post, YDSA wrote that it made a “significant progress this spring” because they “organized Sanctuary Campus Rally and Picket, assembled over 1,300 white kits for our community, reached over 3,800 signatures for our Sanctuary Campus Petition, raised $395 for two families impacted by ICE, distributed “Sanctuary Office” signs and resources to faculty so they are better equipped to protect international students, and created signs, banners, and t-shirts in our art build in preparation for the Sanctuary Campus Picket.”

According to Campus Reform, YDSA also distributed Know Your Rights” cards that help immigrants deal with immigration authorities.

Members of the student organization also attended the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees meeting, where they called for “a public declaration of UC as a Sanctuary Campus,” according to another Instagram post.

The student organization also mentioned electoral wins in the student government, Alex Lauffenburger and Treyvon Ladler, two YDSA members, according to Campus Reform. Both students would work to “explicitly support and push for a Sanctuary Campus,” the news source reported.

It became very clear that they would actually do what they had promised, given that Ladler encouraged his fellow students in a March 10 Instagram post to attend a “sanctuary campus picket,” adding that ICE should not be present on the university campus.

“Do you want safeguards and resources for international students in the wake of increased ICE kidnappings and violence against immigrant communities across the country?” the post said.

Lauffenburger and Ladler were elected as senators in the student government, representing the College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology, and the College-Conservatory of Music, respectively, according to Campus Reform.

“We still have more to do, and we will not stop until UC implements a Sanctuary Campus and implements proper safeguards for its international students to protect them from ICE!” the student organization wrote in the May 9 post.

The left-wing activism sparked backlash from conservatives after Libs of TikTok, a well-known conservative influencer, reposted a flyer from October promoting a YDSA event at the university that taught students how to “stand up & fight back against ICE.”

“This university receives our tax dollars while encouraging students to become radical leftist violent activists,” Libs of TikTok wrote.

Katherine Castiello Jones, associate professor and undergraduate program director in the Sociology Department at the University of Cincinnati, recently seemingly admitted to an undercover journalist that the university is still engaging in another form of left-wing activism – diversity, equity, and inclusion – even though federal and state laws prohibit Ohio universities from doing so.

“In the Sociology Department, that is a core of our curriculum. I mean, we can’t really strip it out. It’s baked into what we talk about and what we teach,” she said, according to the video released by Accuracy in Media, adding that “in pretty much all of our classes, there is a discussion and a critical analysis” of things like “race, class, ‘gender,’ sexuality, and intersectionality.”

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