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Comment by Molitor5901 | Hacker News Reader

I agree, I think it's dancing around the issue of identification, possibly undocumented persons, international students and cultural sensitivity. To push for greater identity verification could be interpreted by some as leaning in towards the mandatory ID political issue. Basically, schools don't want to be seen supporting mandatory ID because it makes them look aligned with the conservatives/Trump.

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It’s not really about looks. If you collect this data, and enroll a student who is seeking asylum, the current administration will attempt to get this data from you to send your student to life in prison in El Salvador. Which is an impact a bit beyond looking aligned. (Of course, reasonable people can disagree about whether life in prison is an appropriate punishment for seeking asylum through legal channels)

Surely there is something that can be done in between "Giving them free taxpayer money without verifying that they exist" and "sending them to prison in el salvador for the crime of applying for asylum"

Sure. But "sending them to prison for the crime of applying for asylum" is the position in power at the moment, and they don't seem to be amenable to compromise. So you accept that as a fait accompli and design your own actions around that.

> But "sending them to prison for the crime of applying for asylum" is the position in power at the moment,

But if they applied for asylum doesn't the US govt already have their information in order to, well, process the asylum application. So, there is nothing for SF College to hide. Not saying that it all has to make sense, but that part doesn't seem to add up somehow.

Oh it makes sense when you translate “applying for asylum “ to the more accurate “illegal alien asking for government money”.

> If you collect this data, and enroll a student who is seeking asylum

> a student who is seeking asylum, the current administration will attempt to get this data from you to send your student to life in prison in El Salvador.

That could make sense at one level, yeah. But doesn't US CIS already have contact information for all who applied for asylum in order to process the asylum application? And besides, this doesn't seem like an issue that just started this year.

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