UA Common Ground hosted a debate on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday.
“We have such a divisive political climate right now,” said Lydia Lysko, treasurer of UACG. “And at Common Ground, we really work hard to have everyone’s voices heard.”
The first topic discussed was ICE’s enforcement authority and collaboration with state and local governments in the United States. Some of ICE’s deportation methods and efforts have been met with criticism that they have become too extreme. Two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by immigration authorities in Minnesota earlier this month.
Sam McKinney, president of UA College Democrats and vice president of UACG, said he believes that “states have the right to operate the systems they operate.”
Lysko countered that local governments not reporting “illegal aliens to ICE” are “breaking the law because they’re hiding criminals.”
Thirteen states and 220 cities nationwide have sanctuary policies in place that limit cooperation of state and local governments with federal immigration enforcement. There is no federal requirement that states or local governments participate or cooperate in immigration enforcement, and sanctuary policies do not violate federal immigration law, according to The Conversation.
When asked about immigrants’ role in the local communities, Trenton Buffenbarger, chairman of UA Young Americans for Freedom, said he believes “what they take out is a lot more than they contribute.”
The second topic covered the extent to whether ICE should prioritize individuals with criminal records versus those with only civil immigration violations.
“We shouldn’t just be going after the day laborers,” said Caroline Wood, secretary for UACG and development director for UACD.
Buffenbarger countered that ICE is “going after mainly the violent criminals and the people they catch along the way.”
According to the CATO Institute, roughly 65% of individuals taken into detention are not criminally convicted, and an estimated 93% of those detained were not convicted of a violent crime.
The debaters also discussed a September 2025 Supreme Court ruling that allowed immigration authorities to use race, language and type of employment as factors when detaining people. Critics have called the ruling an endorsement of racial profiling.
Lysko argued that “sometimes [ICE] only has a name and a description…if they have a description of a forty to fifty year old Hispanic male, they can stop and talk to whoever they want.”
“There are American citizens who also match those descriptions and who stand to be seriously negatively affected by doing that,” McKinney responded.
Parker Hellenga, a freshman majoring in criminology and political science, said the debate was a good opportunity for students to learn about opposing beliefs.
“I just wanted to hear others’ opinions about ICE and how it’s being enforced,” Hellenga said.
Lysko said UACG offers a place for students on both sides of the political spectrum to discuss their beliefs, saying it’s “a great place” for her because she knows she can speak “without being judged,” and she gets to learn about opposing beliefs.
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