Loyola’s ICE Response is Purposefully Quiet and Calculated, CDI Claims

Since Oct. 12, The Phoenix has confirmed and recorded more than 30 sightings of federal agents — including ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents — in the neighborhoods surrounding Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus. 

Before the first sighting was recorded on The Phoenix’s ICE map, the Loyola community received an email from Vice President for Student Development Keith Champagne Sept. 9 sharing information about individuals’ rights when interacting with federal agents. 

ICE launched their “Midway Blitz” operation Sept. 9, The Phoenix reported. By Sept. 19, ICE had arrested an approximated 550 people in Chicago, The Associated Press reported. 

Although the Trump administration says they’re targeting undocumented immigrants, dozens of American citizens and reporters have been held in custody since the beginning of the operation, the AP reported. 

ICE has responded to protestors and reporters with violent means — such as tear gas and pepper balls — despite rulings from federal judges attempting to restrict their use of force, the AP reported. This includes a reporter who was struck outside of the Broadview ICE Facility, The Phoenix reported.

Since the initial email, the university hasn’t explicitly sent out further resources with the university community as a whole. Instead, Assistant Vice President for Diversity and Student Engagement Astrid Beltran said the school is communicating necessary information directly with the students who they think need it most.

Beltran said by abstaining from sending consistent emails to the student body, the university feels they are protecting the most vulnerable students at Loyola. She said the university is aware of the students who they consider to be vulnerable, but Beltran was unable to share any additional information about what qualifications are necessary to be deemed as such. 

“Different students have different needs, and so we connect students to different resources,” Beltran said. 

There’s no public information available about how many undocumented student enrollment at Loyola, but there’s a community of students who fit the description, The Phoenix previously reported. 

Beltran said all Loyola students have access to the CURA Network — a website available through the school where students can submit concerns and receive referrals specific to their situation. 

Beltran said her goal is to make students feel supported, and she hopes they know the university cares about their experience. 

“These are heightened times in our community right now, and there’s a lot of emotions,” Beltran said. “We as staff hear these emotions and work with them and help them go through it, and we sometimes carry it. We have our own identities and our own lives that we also have — we’re human as well.”

There’s no publicly available information regarding how many American citizens or individuals without a criminal record have been arrested. 

ICE hasn’t been reported on Loyola property as of Nov. 18, but agents have been spotted around the edges, including one sighting Oct. 12 on the 1200 block of W. North Shore Ave. — the alleyway behind Bellarmine Hall — and another sighting Oct. 21 as agents drove through the intersection of Neil Hartigan Parkway and West Sheridan Road, which is located near the Father Damen statue. 

The university didn’t reach out to the general student body after either of these instances. 

Student Government of Loyola Chicago (SGLC) is working in collaboration with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) — the office Beltran is under — to provide materials to students, including Know Your Rights flyers and cards outside of their office in Damen Student Center and in the Center for Student Engagement office, according to Student Body President Erin Tylutki. 

Second-year political science and global studies major Jenin Abdul Razzak, who serves as the justice committee chair of SGLC, said the resources the university is sharing are available, just not highly advertised to the student body.

“The resources are there for everybody,” Abdul Razzak said. “It’s just you have to look for them. They’re not super — I guess what I’m trying to say is they’re not constantly emailing everybody saying, ‘Hey, these are all of the things we’re doing for undocumented students.’ I know based off of what my advisor told me that they are aware of any student who is undocumented or has a questionable status — anybody who might be affected by ICE — and their presence here, and they’re working closely with them.”

Tylutki, a fourth-year political science major, said she also works at the Damen front desk and is able to provide printed cards and flyers to students there as well. Tylutki said the cards — which the university is able to get for free due to their status as a non-profit institution — are provided by the Illinois Legal Resource Center (ILRC), an organization designed to provide assistance in training on immigration law and policy, according to their website. 

While SGLC was waiting on the cards to arrive from ILRC, Tylutki said they put out flyers with information on students’ rights for people to pick up across campus, which were provided by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an organization dedicated to advocating for immigrants and refugees, according to their website. 

Although they came from different organizations, Tylutki said the information on the cards and flyers were essentially the same. She said she thinks the university wants to stick with the basic information regarding students’ rights in the resources they provide. All resources located throughout campus have to be approved by the university first. 

Some students said they feel the university is doing the best they can given the situation, The Phoenix reported. Other students, such as fourth-year Ian Sloey, think the school could be doing more to support students. 

Sloey said he felt motivated to do something substantial to contribute to the resources available to students and created a pamphlet with information regarding individuals rights, what to do in an encounter with federal agents and resources to call afterwards. He contacted multiple student organizations about collaborating to distribute it to the Loyola community, SGLC being one of them. 

Tylutki said her views of the university’s efforts revolve around what she’s been told by Beltran, who serves as one of their SGLC advisors. 

“This is just my understanding of it,” Tylutki said. “They don’t want to put too much information about actually interacting with ICE officers because if someone follows that information and gets arrested or taken, they don’t want to be held liable, and they don’t want to give bad advice.”

Tylutki also said she thinks the university wants to be very careful about not giving legal advice in the resources they choose to provide. 

Beltran said so far, she’s provided information regarding students’ rights but hasn’t provided information on ways to interact with ICE. 

“I usually have not provided that information of how to interact with ICE, it’s more of knowing your rights,” Beltran said. “We have informed especially student workers. There’s been training of university policy of if law enforcement — any law enforcement — were to come to campus, this is the protocol that you do. You call campus safety right away and they will handle all of that.”

Sloey said he’s in the process of working with SGLC and CDI to put his pamphlets — the original design of which featured the Loyola emblem on the front — in buildings around campus. However, he said he felt like he ran into bumps with having the university approve the document due to edits he needed to make. 

“The biggest barrier would probably just be making sure the information is accurate,” Tylutki said in relation to the approval of Sloey’s pamphlets. “If we’re going to put the Loyola logo on there, and put the SGLC logo on there, we just want to make sure that we have good information.”

Sloey said he created an alternative version with a graphic of melting ice on the front and said he has been sharing them with a few students around campus while he waits for SGLC and the university to approve his design. Tylutki said Sloey attended a Justice Committee meeting to discuss the idea further with her and Abdul Razzak.

Tylutki said SGLC is interested in the collaboration and asked Sloey to remove portions of the document, particularly a section in which Sloey tells students about whistle protocols in Rogers Park — an initiative started by local organizations designed to help residents notify those around them of when ICE is present, according to ONE Northside Chicago’s website. 

Tylutki said her understanding of the university wanting to avoid encouraging students to interact with federal agents is what led her to ask him to edit out the whistle protocol portion. She said Sloey was advocating to keep it in. 

Beyond this, Tylutki said she asked Sloey to ensure the sources he uses are accurate and update some broken QR codes which were included, but so long as he makes the requested changes she would be happy to collaborate with him on the project. 

Beltran said in relation to the whistle protocol, she wouldn’t be opposed to including something like that in the pamphlet. Rather, she said her biggest issue with the pamphlet was a lack of citations — an issue which could be resolved. She said she would rather continue to push out the information already being made available by the university. 

“We can’t be providing information when we don’t know if it’s accurate because it could do more harm,” Beltran said. 

Although the university doesn’t tell students what kind of advocacy to become involved in, Beltran said part of the university’s goal is to set students up for participation in successful social advocacy. 

“Our mission, if you look at the mission of the institution, it is around social justice,” Beltran said. “If a student believes there needs to be justice in this area, then — we’re not here to limit students or to tell people ‘You should do this,’ or, ‘You should do that,’ when it comes to advocacy. It might be guidance of ‘Think of the way you do it,’ maybe.”

Beltran said the most important thing she wants students to remember is to think about who they are trying to help, and who could be inadvertently harmed in the process. 

Sloey said he doesn’t feel like the university has been doing enough to inform students about the activity of ICE around campus. He said he thinks they are falling short of their Jesuit mission. He said when ICE was near campus Oct. 12, he found out from a friend of his friend. He didn’t think that was the right way to hear about something he felt was so impactful. 

“Heck, doesn’t Loyola pride itself on that?” Sloey said. “At least through its own advertisement, Loyola is this inclusive school for everybody, but then when that’s in danger, it’s just quiet. Honestly, it’s just sad, because at a time when Loyola is being tested on its Jesuit values, it’s not holding itself up to its own standards.”

Tylutki said beyond trying to locate the cards and flyers in additional places across campus, SGLC is working on putting together events and panels to continue to distribute rights information to students. 

Sloey said he plans to continue pushing out his pamphlet and collaborating with multiple student organizations to reach a broader audience.