Cal State LA students call for financial transparency, sanctuary for immigrants
A group of nearly 100 students and faculty rallied at Cal State Los Angeles on Tuesday, protesting school-wide budget cuts, calling to defend DEI programs, and for the protection of undocumented students.
The event was part of a student and faculty-led “Week of Action,” with marches and rallies planned all week at different Cal State University schools. The statewide protests began Monday with a walkout at Cal State San Marcos, and continued at Cal State L.A.
The activists’ demands included: ending Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts and layoffs, declaring CSU schools as sanctuaries from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and resisting efforts to end ethnic studies courses and other diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“This is a sanctuary city for God’s sake,” CSULA professor Leda Ramos said at Tuesday’s rally. “This is a city that thrives on its immigrant communities, and the intersectional spaces between us as immigrants from around the world.”
Participants — including Students for Quality Education, Students United to Reach Goals In Education, the Black Student Union and CSULA Students Against Tuition Hikes — gathered around the Golden Eagle statue near the student union building. They held signs proclaiming “No ICE on campus” and “Protect Trans Lives,” and demanded “money for jobs and education, not for police and deportation.”
Student organizer Ashley Gregory called out the “lack of any sort of plan by this university administration to keep students safe, in case ICE were to come on campus.”
“The student coalition is working tirelessly with much effort to build a migrant defense network here on campus,” Gregory said. “The university refuses to come up with any sort of plan to keep undocumented immigrant students safe.”
On the university’s website, officials say that campus police “will not contact, detain or question” individuals solely on the basis of suspected undocumented immigration status. Public Safety will not work with federal immigration authorities to investigate, detain or arrest individuals “for violation of federal immigration law,” officials said, but “may be called in” to prevent injuries or property damage if ICE officers were to conduct immigration activities on campus.
Cal State L.A. has a Dreamers Resource Center on campus.
Protestors also demanded that the CSU divest from the “military industrial complex” they say is “funding Israeli attacks in Gaza” — echoing calls for transparency made at pro-Palestinian actions on campus last year.
Speakers demanded that the money “being used to fund Israel” should instead go to students’ education and empowerment.
As part of statewide budget cuts, Newsom has proposed a $375 million cut — nearly 8% — to the CSU system’s general fund appropriation for the 2025-26 school year.
This month, leaders gathering in Sacramento called the cut “equivalent to the size and entire operating budget of Fresno State” — about 2,481 faculty positions or 19,800 courses.
The students also protested the CSU’s “Time, Place and Manner policy,” which limits when free speech can be practiced on campuses for safety reasons.
In a statement Tuesday, CSULA spokesperson Erik Frost Hollins said the university “supports the right of members of our campus communities to voice their viewpoints in legal and lawful ways that do not disrupt university operations or infringe on the rights of others.”
“Last week, leaders from CSU’s administration, student and faculty governing bodies were in Sacramento together advocating to avoid a $375 million permanent cut in state funding,” Hollins said. “We must work together to ensure the CSU is able to continue the important work of providing a transformative education that helps students achieve greater social mobility, and fuels California’s workforce and economy.”
On Tuesday, CSULA students marched from the bookstore to the school’s Billie Jean King statue, where a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was formed last May, which remained on campus for over a month. A piñata of President Donald Trump was hung nearby, where some students lined up to hit it.
A piñata of President Donald Trump was put up by organizers at Cal State LA for students to take swings at. A line has formed to participate pic.twitter.com/sb8DlYxjfU
— Victoria Ivie (@vwritesap) March 25, 2025
The march stopped at the Student Services building, where CSULA President Berenecea Eanes’ office is. Last June, protesters took over the building, chaining themselves to the entrance and staging a sit-in.
Social work major Jasmin Carreon said that she and many other students feel “unsafe” on campus because of the lack of support from administrators to keep immigration officers off campus. She feared that any diversity programs facing cuts show “our history … an example of how we got here.”
“Not all of us, but most of us students are undocumented and are afraid,” Carreon said. “Our money is given to them, and then they can’t even protect us (from ICE).”
The 23-school Cal State system has around 9,500 undocumented students receiving nonresident tuition exemptions, according to the CSU Long Beach Library,
“A lot of people come here from different backgrounds and races,” Carreon said. “The school wouldn’t be what it is today without us, the students.”
More protests are expected at Cal State Long Beach on Wednesday, March 26, and at Cal State Fullerton on Thursday, March 27.
City News Service contributed to this report.