A petition has been launched by students of Baylor University calling the Christian university's administration to join the growing 'sanctuary campus' movement that works to protect undocumented immigrants.
The Make Baylor University a Sanctuary Campus petition has gathered nearly 1,300 signatures since it was introduced last week, Baptist News Global reports.
Baylor's petition called recent executive orders by Donald Trump in immigration 'incompatible with Baylor's Christian commitments'.
'Sanctuary campuses' are derived from the concept of 'sanctuary cities', areas which refuse to cooperate with the federal government on immigration policies.
Students and staff at more than 200 campuses across the country have appealed for their institutions to publicly resist government policy to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
The petition said: 'Baylor's profession of the Christian faith commits it to the formation of a hospitable, just, and truth-telling community, especially for the sake of its most vulnerable members, in whom Christians discern the face of Christ (Matt. 25:31-46).'
It called on the university to join 'with Christian and other institutions across the nation in affirming that refugees, migrants and international visitors are full and essential members of our community, whose dignity and well-being we must uphold'.
'There was a sense that our call scripturally to care for the stranger among us was going to end up in conflict with what the state was asking us to do,' petition co-author Lois Johnson told the Baylor Lariat. The petition was co-authored by six members of Baylor's Graduate Theological Fellowship.
The appeal calls for Baylor 'to be a sanctuary campus that will refuse to comply with immigration investigations or deportations to the fullest extent possible, including denying access to university property'.
It also calls for scholarships to be given to students from the seven majority-Muslim countries named in Trump's travel ban.
Baylor's administration has responded saying that it 'fully appreciates the strong support and encouragement of the campus community for our students and scholars who have been impacted by the recent executive order'. Their statement referred to the ways in which they were trying to help those affected by the recent executive orders.
