DAN QUAGLIANA
Managing Editor
One of President Donald Trump’s central campaign promises was that he would immediately start “preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.”
Now that Trump has taken office, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the federal agency at the forefront of this plan. In addition to carrying out raids on sanctuary cities, the president has allowed them to raid schools, places of worship and hospitals, something that previous administrations have not permitted.
School districts in several states have already issued instructions to their faculty and staff saying that they are not to comply with ICE officials and not to allow them on school grounds unless they have a proper warrant.
International students at universities across the country, many who are residing legally in the United States, have had their visas revoked by the federal government with little explanation.
According to Inside Higher Ed, “As of April 24, over 280 colleges and universities have identified 1,800-plus international students and recent graduates who have had their legal status changed by the State Department.”
As an explanation, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that students come to the United States “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos,” referring to pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the country, which the Trump Administration calls “pro-Hamas.”
In a Tweet posted to X on March 9, Rubio said, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
The first high-profile case of ICE taking a university student into custody was the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a lead organizer for the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year. Khalil was taken from his New York City apartment by ICE on March 8 on order from the Department of State to revoke his student visa. When ICE was informed by Khalil’s attorney that he was a legal resident in the country, they said “they were revoking that instead,” according to the Associated Press.
Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. Instead, the Department of State’s argument is based on a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which says that the Secretary of State may deport legal immigrants if they believe that their presence in the country will have negative consequences for the country’s foreign policy.
Khalil remains in custody in the United States amid an ongoing court battle.
With ICE activity on the rise across the country, students at SUNY Fredonia have been fearful that the same thing could happen here.
On April 10, students heard a rumor that ICE agents were seen on campus. University Police, through Marketing and Communications, sent out an email that said, “University Police would like to address a rumor that spread on campus this morning that the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was actively on campus this morning. University Police has determined that the agency is not on campus. Based on UPD’s investigation and assessment, a classroom conversation was misinterpreted and taken out of context, which led to false information being shared. Again, UPD has confirmed with ICE that their agents are not on campus at this time.”
University Police Chief Gorden Carpenter was able to elaborate on the situation: “In this instance, we were able to quickly determine that this might not be factual, that it may have been something that was said that was taken out of context. We made contact with ICE themselves, and we were able to confirm quickly that there were no agents on campus at all.”
If ICE agents are on campus, which has not happened as of April 26, “They would let the chief law enforcement of the jurisdiction know. In this case, that would be me,” Carpenter said. “That’s an understanding because it’s somebody else’s jurisdiction.” Additionally, “We have to verify the information. That would [occur by asking questions such as], ‘What’s the source of this information?’ ‘How reliable is this information?’”
Carpenter said that he is not aware of any plans for ICE to be on campus in the future.
“In any instance, you want to be calm. You want to be compliant, and you want to be honest. If [students] see [ICE] on campus, we should be notified immediately,” he said. “We need to make contact with ICE to ensure that students feel safe and we know what’s going on in our jurisdiction.”
“It can be a scary thing,” Carpenter admitted. “But typically, we would know prior to anybody else and be able to do what we need to if they were to come on campus … Again, I will reiterate: There is no plan for ICE to come on campus.”
SOURCES:
https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-15014bcbb921f21a9f704d5acdcae7a8