Immigration Services Visit to Campus

May 23, 2017

​Dear Students, Staff and Faculty:

In light of heightened concern about immigration, I wanted to provide information about a recent incident.

On Thursday, May 18, an officer from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services came to Smith’s Office of Human Resources (HR) to verify the employment status of a new employee working at Smith under an H-1B visa. Site visits to verify employment information in relation to college-sponsored visas are not uncommon and have occurred for a number of years on college and university campuses.

When the officer couldn’t readily locate the HR representative he sought, he left his business card and went of his own accord to the employee’s department, something that any visitor to our campus generally has the right to do during business hours. The employee contacted Human Resources, which reached out to attorneys at Curran & Berger, the Northampton-based firm that has long advised the college and our students, staff and faculty on immigration and visa matters. The attorneys described the agent's visit as a routine, straightforward information check. The employee voluntarily supplied the requested information and is continuing in his role at Smith.

The officer was not employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE and his visit was unrelated to undocumented students or students with DACA status.

Be assured that Smith remains committed to its policy of not taking any voluntary action that would put members of our community at risk because of their citizenship or immigration status. We will continue to work with managers and employees on implementation of the policy.

Our full immigration policy and related resources are available here.

Sincerely,

Kathleen McCartney
President