Morehouse College freshman Adrian “Panama” Malvaez said he can still picture the horrific dream from earlier this year in which, on a typical day of working in his school’s dining hall, he was abruptly taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“Everyone was like, ‘Wait, no, no, don’t take Panama!’” the 18-year-old education studies major recalled of his premonition. “They arrested everybody.”

It took several days for Malvaez — who identifies as a Panama native who has been living in Georgia legally for more than a decade — to shake how real his dream felt. His anxieties mirror those of others at Morehouse who fear President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation platform will play out at the storied HBCU.

“We’re definitely aware of some faculty members who are not citizens who are worried at this time,” said Andrew Douglas, chair of the college’s political science department.

Douglas heads the 11-member Faculty Council, an on-campus coalition that advocates for various professorial and student needs. The group has called on administrators to respond to growing concerns about scaled immigration arrests under Trump’s administration.

According to an ICE press release, the agency has made more at-large migrant arrests within Trump’s first 50 days in office than it did in the entire 2024 fiscal year under former President Joe Biden’s administration, apprehending more than 32,800 people nationally since Jan. 20.

While less than 1% of Morehouse students and full-time faculty are international or nonresidents, respectively, nearly 47% of the institution’s instructors are part-time or adjunct, according to the school’s 2023-2024 admissions data. There is no public information available about the residential status of non-full-time staff, suggesting there’s a possibility that some faculty members could be targeted by deportation agents.

“You’re not going to drag people out of here in handcuffs” 

A Faculty Council resolution dated Feb. 25 and sent to Morehouse Provost Kendrick Brown and Police Chief Charles Prescott pushed for college leadership to communicate within one week its plan for handling a hypothetical ICE arrival on campus. 

“Morehouse students, staff, and even faculty might be at risk of harassment or worse by ICE,” the email reads. “Raids, but also arrests under suspicious circumstances, have been taking place on the hallowed grounds of faith/worship houses and at workplaces.”  

Brown responded the following day in an email addressed to faculty and staff, saying he’d immediately consulted with Prescott.

“[We] have agreed that if agents arrive at our gates, they will be held there until they are met by the highest-ranking officer on duty,” Brown’s notice reads. “If they present a warrant, it must be verified before any further action is taken.”

The notice went on to say that once a warrant is verified, Brown would notify the appropriate offices and “handle it in a manner that best serves the interests of the Morehouse community.”

“If it was verified and it’s a real warrant, I can’t deny that right from a federal officer,” Prescott said, also noting that he would not allow an inhumane removal of any person from the campus.

“You’re not going to drag people out of here in handcuffs out of the front gate,” Prescott added. “I’ve seen the stuff they’ve been doing. We’re not going to cause a scene.”

Douglas said the initial response did not fully address his concerns.

“Ideally, I would like to see a more principled commitment to the idea that the campus is a sanctuary space,” Douglas said in response to the administration’s memo. “And certainly, we didn’t get that.”

Morehouse President David Thomas expressed a different take earlier this year.

“If immigration services were to show up in Morehouse, we would not cooperate,” Thomas told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a January interview. “Or at least I would not authorize my staff to cooperate, because I do think that it’s not a moral practice.”

International students worry about profiling

Malvaez’s nightmare of lunchroom detention is behind him, but he recognizes the need to keep his anxieties at bay due to a history of panic attacks. Malvaez says praying, journaling, taking walks, and venting to others has helped him remain calm. But he also understands the potential to be racially profiled and detained by federal agents — even as a documented student.

“You really don’t want to think about it, but it sounds like the risk has gone upward,” he said. “It feels pretty scary, I’m not gonna lie.” 

The scenario is not unheard of in recent months. In late January, the Navajo Nation sounded off as ICE illegally detained a Native American U.S. citizen and military veteran in Newark, New Jersey.

ICE also arrested Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a well-known Palestinian activist who helped coordinate the student encampment protest in support of Gazans — earlier this month, even though he is a permanent resident and green card holder. He was detained following an ICE raid in his university-owned apartment. 

Sipho Khumo Kumalo, a former Morehouse student from South Africa, recently left Morehouse for reasons unrelated to the political climate. He still has a vested interest in the safety and protection of the community.

“An institution does not run without its faculty and its students,” Kumalo said.

Elijah Qualls is a sophomore political science and journalism double major at Morehouse College who is covering federal government impact on HBCUs for his social justice journalism class.