Editor’s Note: This piece is a guest submission from the student organization Medical Students Against ICE. In response to a letter they received from the UC San Diego School of Medicine regarding student concerns on immigration policies, Medical Students Against ICE hopes to initiate a needed forum for medical students and the general student body to advocate for policy change and to work more proactively in protecting the community.
The UC San Diego School of Medicine is built upon values of “respect, justice, compassion, empathy, and inclusion.” The “response” from the SOM to recent concerns raised by Medical Students Against ICE about immigration enforcement is in direct contradiction to each one of these values.
Several students have previously expressed reasonable fears about federal authorities potentially detaining, intimidating, questioning or physically harming their family members regardless of citizenship status. Said family members were unable to attend the white coat ceremony this past August or visit their loved ones in San Diego in large part due to the lack of a proactive, preventative, and clear set of policy actions by the UCSD SOM.
Instead of directly addressing the matter, the SOM administration referred to UCSD’s official policies and statements on immigration, which Chancellor Pradeep Khosla issued via email on Jan. 16, 2026. Khosla’s response cited UCSD’s decision in Fall 2024 “not to issue statements regarding specific political or social issues that do not directly pertain to the university’s mission and operations,” a policy that brings forth a cognitive dissonance and raises more questions than answers. If an institution dedicated to training physicians cannot ensure that students and their families feel safe attending a foundational professional ceremony, then they are not upholding their values or commitments.
The policy also explicitly affirms that Immigration and Customs Enforcement or any federal immigration agency presence is permitted on our campus for “non-enforcement activities which can include recruitment and activities related to normal nonimmigrant visa status verifications.” It is easily foreseeable from the history of state-sanctioned violence and policing — especially within the context of our nation’s current condition — that federal law enforcement can and will use any pretext to conduct their operations. CalMatters reports a nearly 1,500% increase in arrests related to civil violations of immigration law from May 2025 to October 2025 in San Diego and Imperial counties compared to the same period last year.
The International Services and Engagement Office student FAQ page details that 35 students on UCSD’s campus have had their F-1 Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record terminated, and one student was deported with no explanation of their termination as of April 21, 2025. It is further stated that of the 35 F-1 SEVIS record terminations, all 35 are in the process of reactivation with the one deportation withstanding as of April 28, 2025. Although there are updates on SEVIS record terminations and reactivations provided by the ISEO, we believe this information to not be practically accessible nor well-known to students.
Our concerns are not solely about “what is currently happening around the country,” as stated in the SOM’s response to our initial request, but also the school’s inability to address threats that have existed for years.
The SOM and affiliated institutions have not taken appropriate action amid the reported 290 people who have died since 2004 in ICE custody and the many more thousands subject to inhumane medical treatment, often under the supervision of unqualified medical staff. From 2017 to 2024, four people have died just 27 miles away from UCSD while imprisoned in the Otay Mesa Detention Center, contributing to the 70 overall deaths in detention centers nationwide. UCSD’s Undocumented Student Services FAQ page highlights six border checkpoints that surround the county and are “unpredictable when they become active.”
Decades have passed to appropriately address concerns all too familiar for several affected generations. What is happening now is simply a logical progression of indifference and reactive inertia.
Evidence for this concern stems from the letter sent to Khosla and Campus Counsel Daniel Park by the UC San Diego Faculty Association on Sept. 17, 2025 titled, “Request for transparency over release of personal information to federal agencies.” In seemingly direct opposition to the approved resolution, The UCSD Guardian on Oct. 6, 2025 described how “UC San Diego’s administration sent personally identifiable information of UCSD faculty, staff, and students to the University of California Office of the President, which sent said information to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.” The Guardian confirmed later that federal investigators acquired names of the aforementioned individuals. Thus, it is clear that student information is not secure. This eerily resembles actions other institutions have taken against students exercising their first amendment rights — such as in the cases of Rumeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, Rasha Alawieh, Leqaa Kordia, and many more.
These contradictions and lack of accessible transparency from UCSD demonstrate the need to address several concerns. The University’s plans to protect its students when faced with threats of federal funding cuts, clarify how it will respond to federal actions against students or community members on campus, and publish more accessible updates regarding these aforementioned actions are necessary to address those contradictions.
We have proposed a student-led forum with the SOM deans to ensure our concerns are understood and addressed. The main points during the proposed forum can be found within the letter sent to the UCSD SOM deans on March 24. We have yet to hear a response or acknowledgment of receipt as of publishing this piece.
