Tag: ICE

  • ICE Reveals How It Targeted International Students

    ICE Reveals How It Targeted International Students

    Federal immigration officials targeted student visa holders by running their names through a federal database of criminal histories, according to court testimony given by Department of Homeland Security officials on Tuesday and reported by Politico.

    As part of the Student Criminal Alien Initiative, as officials dubbed the effort, 20 ICE agents and several federal contractors ran the names of 1.3 million potential student visa holders through the database, searching for those that were both still enrolled in programs and had had some brush with the criminal justice system. Many of those students had only minor criminal infractions on their record like traffic violations, and they often had never been charged. ICE used that information to terminate students’ SEVIS records.

    Officials testified that ICE ultimately flagged around 6,400 Student Exchange and Visitor Information System records for termination and used the data to revoke more than 3,000 student visas—far more than the 1,800 that Inside Higher Ed tracked over the past month. 

    The officials’ testimony came in a hearing for one of many lawsuits filed by international students and immigration attorneys challenging the sudden and unexplained visa terminations; dozens of the cases have been successful so far. Last week the agency restored international students’ visas amid the flurry of court losses and said it would release an updated policy in the near future. 

    On Monday, the Trump administration released a draft of that policy, which vastly expands the prior one and makes visa revocation legal grounds for a student’s legal residency to be terminated as well.

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  • At Least 15 Florida Institutions Have ICE Agreements

    At Least 15 Florida Institutions Have ICE Agreements

    At least three members of the Florida College System have signed agreements with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow their campus police departments to enforce immigration law, bringing the total to 15 institutions across the state.

    Florida SouthWestern State College, Northwest Florida State College and Tallahassee State College have all signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, which allows the agency to delegate immigration enforcement powers to other law enforcement agencies, such as campus police. Those three agreements have been approved by ICE, according to a federal database. Others approved as participating agencies are the police at Florida A&M University, New College of Florida, the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida and the University of West Florida.

    None of the three latest colleges responded to requests for comment from Inside Higher Ed.

    Santa Fe College also has a draft agreement in place that has not yet been signed, a spokesperson said, noting the earliest that would be done is at a May 20 board meeting. A spokesperson for Pensacola State College said its campus police are considering an application to partner with ICE.

    Other institutions that have already signed agreements with ICE are:

    • Florida A&M University
    • Florida Atlantic University
    • Florida Gulf Coast University
    • Florida International University
    • Florida Polytechnic University
    • Florida State University
    • New College of Florida
    • University of Central Florida
    • University of Florida
    • University of North Florida
    • University of South Florida
    • University of West Florida

    While all 12 institutions in the State University System have signed on with ICE, Florida SouthWestern State, Northwest Florida State and Tallahassee State appear to be the first of the 28 members in the Florida College System to enter such arrangements.

    Not all of the state colleges have campus police departments. But of those that do have campus police departments, signing on with ICE isn’t a given. For instance, Florida State College of Jacksonville and Polk State College told Inside Higher Ed that neither have a memorandum of agreement with ICE.

    Leaders Defend Agreements

    The agreements with ICE come amid an immigration crackdown driven by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature. In February, DeSantis directed state law enforcement agencies to sign agreements with ICE “to execute functions of immigration enforcement within the state” to make deportations more efficient, according to a news release.

    Florida colleges and universities soon followed by signing memorandums of understanding with ICE that will deputize campus police officers to carry out immigration duties on campus. Institutions have largely declined to speak publicly about the arrangements. However, a recent Faculty Senate meeting at Florida International University with FIU chief of police Alexander Casas yielded insights into why agreements were signed but left many lingering questions.

    Casas argued at the April 18 meeting that it would be better for university police to carry out immigration enforcement duties on campus than outside agencies.

    “I can’t control what ICE does. I can’t control what a state agency does that has jurisdiction. But if I don’t enter the agreement, I don’t even have the opportunity to say, ‘Call us first, let us deal with our community.’ That’s not even an option,” Casas said. He added he wanted to be “in the driver’s seat” but “without the agreement, I’m not even in the car.”

    FIU interim president Jeanette Nuñez, the former lieutenant governor under DeSantis, also defended the deal, telling the Faculty Senate the ICE agreement follows similar arrangements “at almost all of the state universities and many other universities across the country.”

    Immigration experts have told Inside Higher Ed they are unfamiliar with such agreements at universities in other states. Only Florida institutions appear in an ICE database that tracks active and pending 287(g) agreements. (FIU did not respond to questions about Nuñez’s claims.)

    FIU Faculty Senate members, however, did not seem swayed by Casas or Nuñez. Several professors spoke about their distrust for ICE—some clearly emotional—and referenced recent questionable actions by ICE, such as the widely publicized arrest of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, an American citizen who was detained earlier this month and falsely accused of illegally entering Florida as an “unauthorized alien.” Federal officials later blamed Lopez-Gomez for his arrest.

    Ultimately, the Faculty Senate approved a resolution calling for the university to withdraw from the ICE agreement, which members argued ran counter to the values of the institution.

    Statewide Concerns

    Concerns about such agreements have also emerged at universities across the state.

    Students and faculty have protested such agreements at FIU, FAU and elsewhere. United Faculty of Florida, a union that represents professors across the state, condemned the agreements with ICE as a betrayal of the core values of higher education in a recent statement.

    “Our campuses must be institutions of learning, critical inquiry, and inclusion—not instruments of surveillance and state-sponsored oppression,” United Faculty of Florida officials said in a statement last week. “The presence and involvement of ICE on our campuses sows fear among students, staff, and faculty, particularly those from immigrant, undocumented, or international communities. It undermines the very mission of our higher education system: to foster open dialogue, intellectual freedom, and the free exchange of ideas across borders and identities.”

    The agreements also prompted pushback from the Florida Advisory Council of Faculty Senates, which issued a resolution that urged universities to withdraw from existing agreements with ICE.

    “To effectively protect our universities, campus police cultivate a unique relationship with campus communities,” council members wrote in a recent resolution. “They come to know our students, our educational spaces, and our communities. They are present at peaceful protests, in classrooms, and at student events. Repurposing this unique trust for federal immigration enforcement makes our campuses less safe, puts our officers in an untenable position, and chills students’ access to the support services they critically need to succeed.”

    That resolution has already been endorsed by some faculty senates, including at FAU.

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  • ICE Reverses Course on SEVIS Terminations

    ICE Reverses Course on SEVIS Terminations

    Nearly 2,000 students have had their SEVIS records terminated in recent weeks. On Friday, some records began being restored.

    Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | aapsky/iStock/Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Over the past three weeks, several thousand international students received notice that their status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System was changed, which threatened their legal ability to stay in the country and resulted in some students being detained or self-deporting. But as of late last night, the federal government is reversing course and reinstating students’ SEVIS records.

    Elora Mukherjee, director of the Columbia Law School Immigrant Rights Center, first heard Thursday evening that 50 percent of affected students had had their SEVIS records reinstated. At the time, immigration lawyers didn’t know if it would be a blanket reversal.

    But Friday morning, a lawyer for the government told a federal judge that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was restoring students’ SEVIS statuses nationwide while ICE develops a policy framework for record terminations. In the meantime, “ICE will not modify the record solely based on the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] finding that resulted in the recent SEVIS record termination,” according to the court filing.

    So far, both students who filed lawsuits and those who didn’t have seen records restored, Mukherjee said.

    Federal judges across the country have already ordered the government to restore some students’ records in SEVIS, a key database that tracks international students, after those students sued. The judges, for the most part, have expressed skepticism that the terminations were legal. Of the more than 100 lawsuits, judges have granted temporary restraining orders in at least 50 cases, Politico reported.

    The sudden terminations have led to widespread confusion and fear for international students. Lawyers said in court filings and interviews that students affected are afraid to leave their homes or have lost out on income because of the terminations, among other consequences.

    As of Friday morning, Inside Higher Ed has identified over 1,840 students and recent graduates from more than 280 colleges and universities who have reported SEVIS record shifts. Many institutions didn’t receive clear communication when student records were changed in the first place, making it likely that they won’t receive updates if and when records are restored.

    Two colleges have already seen the changes take place. At the University of California, Berkeley, 23 students had their SEVIS statuses changed since April 4, but overnight a dozen students regained their status without warning or explanation, the university’s student paper, The Daily Californian, reported. Stanford University said late on April 24 that one student whose visa was revoked had their record restored.

    This reversal doesn’t eliminate harm, Mukherjee noted. A few students elected to self-deport based on communication from the Trump administration or their own colleges and universities. Others were told to stop attending class or working. Among those who did continue their daily lives, a lapse in their SEVIS status could potentially cause them harm in the future, Mukherjee said.

    In the policy update shared Friday, government officials provided more clarity about what prompted the sweeping visa revocations: a search in the National Crime Information Center.

    Of students who had their SEVIS status changed, many were classified as “OTHER—Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked,” according to court filings. Students who did have criminal records were cited for a variety of reasons ranging from driving without a license and overfishing to underage drinking. Some students didn’t have a criminal record at all.

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  • Undocumented Immigrant Students Protected by Plyler v. Doe Ruling – The 74

    Undocumented Immigrant Students Protected by Plyler v. Doe Ruling – The 74


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    Students began asking questions soon after President Donald Trump took office.

    “How old do I have to be to adopt my siblings?” an area student asked a teacher, worried that their parents could be deported.

    “Can I attend school virtually?” asked another student, reasoning that they would be safer from being targeted by immigration agents if they studied online at home.

    A straight-A student from a South American country stunned and saddened her teacher by saying, “So when are they going to send me back?”

    “Can I borrow a laminator?”  asked another, who wanted to make a stack of “Know Your Rights” flyers sturdier. High schoolers have been passing the guides out, informing people what to do if stopped and questioned about immigration status.

    Trump campaigned on a vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, boasting of mass deportations.

    What that might mean for the children of targeted immigrants, or whether they would be rounded up, has been the subject of speculation, rumor and fear.

    In early March, the Trump administration began detaining families at a Texas center, with the intention of deporting the children and adults together.

    Kansas City area school districts are responding, training teachers and staff on protocols in case immigration agents try to enter a school and sending notices to parents.

    “Not every school district, not every charter school, not every private school, has addressed the issue,” said Christy J. Moreno with Revolución Educativa, a Kansas City nonprofit advocating for Latinos’ educational success.

    Parents in some local schools have had their fears calmed through district communication.

    “There have been some districts that have been a little bit more public about their stance on this, but in general terms, they’re not being very public,” said Moreno, an advocacy and impact officer. “It’s because of all the executive orders and the fear that federal funding will be taken away.”

    Indeed, when asked to comment, most area districts declined or pointed to district policy posted online.

    Immigrant children’s right to attend public school, K-12, is constitutionally protected.

    A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, guarantees it regardless of immigration status.

    The Plyler ruling also ensures that schools do not ask the immigration status of children as they enroll, something that area districts have emphasized in communication to parents.

    The Shawnee Mission School District relies on policies that are the responsibility of building administrators if any external agency, such as law enforcement, requests access to or information about a student.

    “We strongly believe that every child deserves free and unfettered access to a quality public education, regardless of immigration status,” said David A. Smith, chief communications officer, in a statement. “While we cannot control the actions of others, we can control how we respond.”

    Schools were once understood to be off limits for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Schools were considered to be “sensitive places,” along with hospitals and places of worship.

    Trump rescinded that nearly 14-year-old policy by executive order immediately upon taking office in January.

    In February, the Denver Public Schools sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the schools’ duty to educate students was hindered by the change.

    Students were missing school out of fear, the Colorado educators said. And administrators and teachers were forced to redirect resources to train staff on how to react in case immigration agents entered school grounds.

    On March 7, a federal judge sided with Homeland Security in denying the injunction.

    The ruling gleaned some clarity for schools, with the government noting that the current policy requires “some level of approval on when to conduct an action” in a school.

    But that guardrail doesn’t negate anxieties, the judge acknowledged.

    In the Kansas City area, one mother, with two children in public school, indicated that her district’s support was too hesitant.

    “I know that the districts at this time have not come out in support of immigrant families in these difficult times,” she said. “They are just being very diplomatic, saying that education comes first.”

    Plyler v. Doe: Constitutionally protected, but still threatened

    Plyler v. Doe isn’t as universally understood as Brown v. Board of Education.

    The U.S. Supreme Court case guaranteeing immigrant children’s right to a public K-12 education is a landmark decision, said Rebeca Shackleford, director of federal government relations for All4Ed, a national nonprofit advocating for educational equity.

    “Kids are losing out already, even though they still have their right to this education,” Shackleford said. “There are kids who are not in school today because their parents are holding them back.”

    The class-action case originated in Texas.

    In 1975, the state legislature said school districts could deny enrollment to children who weren’t “legally admitted” into the U.S., withholding state funds for those children’s education.

    Two years later, the Tyler district decided to charge $1,000 tuition to Mexican students who couldn’t meet the legally admitted requirement. James Plyler was the superintendent of the Tyler Independent School District.

    The case was brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

    Lower courts ruled for the children and their parents, noting that the societal costs of not educating the children outweighed the state’s harm. The lower courts also ruled the state could not preempt federal immigration law.

    Eventually the case was taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1982 upheld the rights of the students to receive a K-12 education, 5-4, citing the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause.

    “By denying these children a basic education,” the court said, “we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.”

    The court also said that holding children accountable for their parents’ actions “does not comport with fundamental conceptions of justice.”

    There have been efforts by state legislatures to challenge the ruling.

    In 2011, Alabama saw a dramatic drop in Latino student attendance, even among U.S.-born children, when the state ordered districts to determine the immigration status of students as they enrolled.

    The law was later permanently blocked by a federal court.

    Tennessee is currently debating passage of a law similar to the Texas law that led to the Plyler ruling.

    The proposed law would allow districts to charge undocumented students tuition, and would require districts to check the legal status of students as they enrolled.

    The bill recently passed out of an education committee.

    The chilling effect of such proposals, like current calls for mass deportations, can be widespread for children, advocates said.

    “How can you learn if you’re worried about whether or not your parents are going to be home when you get home from school?” Shackleford said.

    Teachers nationwide are seeing the impact as students worry for themselves, their parents and friends.

    “I think sometimes we forget that the words that we use as adults and the messages that we send are affecting our kids,” Shackleford, a former teacher, said. “And no one feels that more than teachers and classroom educators, because they’re right there in the rooms and hearing this and seeing the pain of their students.”

    Information vacuums contribute to rumors

    Voids in information leave room for misinformation, which is quickly spread by social media.

    Local advocates for immigrant rights have been tamping down rumors about raids, especially in regard to schools.

    There have not been any reported incidents involving ICE agents inside or on local K-12 school grounds.

    But in February, a man was detained near a Kansas City school, presumably as he was getting ready to drop a child off for the day’s lessons.

    Homeland Security officials arrested a man they said had previously been deported. Staff of the Guadalupe Centers Elementary & Pre-K School acted quickly, escorting the child into the building.

    For districts, managing communications can be a balance.

    North Kansas City Schools began getting questions from parents about ICE and Customs and Border Protection early this year.

    On Jan. 24, the district sent a notice to parents emphasizing policies that had been in place for several years.

    “In general, law enforcement has the same limited level of access to student records as members of the public with no special permissions,” according to the notice. “Law enforcement agents are not permitted to speak with nor interact with students without a valid subpoena, court order or explicit parent permission unless it’s an emergency situation.”

    Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Collier addressed immigration in a late January board meeting.

    Collier said that work had begun “behind the scenes” after Trump rescinded the sensitive-places policy.

    “What we didn’t want to do was to get out front and begin to alarm everybody, to create anxiety,” Collier said, noting the “feelings of heaviness and in some cases feelings of hopelessness.”

    All staff would be trained, including legal and security teams, in identifying valid court orders or warrants.

    She emphasized the emotional well-being of students. And the district has posted guidance online.

    “We’re going to make it to the other side of this,” Collier told her board. “So hold on. Don’t lose hope.”

    This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.


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  • At Least 10 Florida Universities Have Signed ICE Agreements

    At Least 10 Florida Universities Have Signed ICE Agreements

    At least 10 Florida public universities have struck agreements with the federal government authorizing campus police to question and detain undocumented immigrants.

    Inside Higher Ed requested public records from all 12 State University System of Florida institutions related to their agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Based on the results, it is clear that at least 10 have signed deals with ICE: Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, New College of Florida, the University of Central Florida, the University of Florida, the University of North Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of West Florida.

    Florida State University and Florida Polytechnic University are in the process of signing the paperwork, according to spokespersons at each institution.

    It is unclear whether any of the 28 members of the Florida College System, which don’t all have sworn police forces, have made similar arrangements with ICE. An FCS system spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether its colleges have also entered such agreements.

    Universities across the state signed memorandums of agreement at the direction of Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who ordered law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE “to execute functions of immigration enforcement,” according to a Feb. 19 news release.

    Legal experts and Florida faculty members note that such agreements are rare and mark a shift away from the typical duties of campus police, which don’t usually include immigration enforcement. They also raised concerns about how such arrangements could create a climate of fear on campuses.

    Enforcers Seeking Partners

    The DeSantis directive came shortly after the governor tapped Larry Keefe, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, to serve as executive director of the nascent State Board of Immigration Enforcement, created by Florida’s Legislature. Keefe is known for helping DeSantis orchestrate flights of migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in 2022.

    Keefe was named to the role on Feb. 17. Eight days later, Jennifer Pritt, executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, sent an email to multiple universities that included a template for a memorandum of agreement with ICE. “Director Keefe is seeking participation from as many municipalities as possible, as soon as possible,” Pritt wrote.

    Most universities, however, offered limited statements about their agreements with ICE. A Florida Board of Governors spokesperson also provided few details.

    “Several police departments at universities within the State University System of Florida are partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Cassandra Edwards, director of public affairs for FLBOG, wrote by email. “We do not maintain these records and recommend contacting individual universities for specific information about the partnerships.”

    Public records show that Florida Poly was hesitant to sign on, apparently due to guidance by Polk County sheriff Grady Judd, who is also on the State Board of Immigration Enforcement.

    “He wants us to hold off and not sign because he’s going to be handling all from Polk and not wants [sic] us to be involved as of now,” Florida Poly police chief Rick Holland wrote in a March 25 email response to questions from administrators at other universities about the agreements.

    Though Florida Poly noted it is still in the consideration process, emails obtained by Inside Higher Ed show another message from Holland indicating that Florida Poly appears willing to sign.

    “Can you send me a signed copy of your MOU as a template to where I need to sign?” Holland wrote in an April 3 email sent to Jennifer Coley, the chief of police at New College of Florida.

    (Florida Poly confirmed after publication that it planned to sign the paperwork Wednesday.)

    The Agreements

    Memorandums of agreement reviewed by Inside Higher Ed show that universities that entered arrangements with ICE will grant their police the authority to perform tasks typically reserved for government officials, such as questioning, arresting and preparing charges for individuals on campus suspected of immigration violations.

    Campus police will be required to undergo mandatory training “on relevant administrative, legal, and operational issues tailored to the immigration enforcement functions to be performed,” according to copies of agreements between universities and ICE reviewed by Inside Higher Ed.

    Universities that signed agreements did not provide a timeline for when the training might begin.

    Michael Kagan, a law professor and director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Immigration Clinic, said such agreements are uncommon at universities, noting that he is unaware of any others. He said they are essentially “force multipliers for ICE that deputize local police agencies to do the work that ICE would normally do itself.”

    Jennifer Chacón, a professor at Stanford Law School, also said that she had not heard of prior agreements between campus police and ICE. Chacón noted that 287(g) agreements, introduced in 1996 to delegate immigration enforcement powers to other law enforcement agencies, have ebbed and flowed over the years, rising under Republican presidents and falling under their Democratic counterparts. Under President Donald Trump, who has made a crackdown on immigration a central part of his policy agenda, such agreements are proliferating.

    “Over the last three months, we’ve seen an explosion in 287(g) agreements under Trump,” Chacón said.

    ‘Designed to Increase Fear’

    Faculty and legal scholars are skeptical and concerned about campus agreements with ICE.

    In a statement to Inside Higher Ed, the Florida International chapter of United Faculty of Florida called for the university to immediately withdraw from the program, which it condemned.

    “We affirm that every member of our university community has a basic right to feel safe on campus—free from profiling, surveillance, and fear of deportation,” members wrote. “FIU’s latest act of anticipatory obedience undermines the rights of our community and jeopardizes the opportunity for all students and faculty to learn from and engage with their non-citizen peers. FIU’s haste to comply with ICE is in direct conflict with its stated vision. These actions distract from our educational mission and erode the inclusive environment FIU claims to foster.”

    The statement added the student body is “majority Hispanic, heavily immigrant, and home to nearly 600 students protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program,” calling the agreement a betrayal of FIU’s legacy as a prominent Hispanic-serving institution.

    Faculty at FIU also wrote that they were “equally alarmed to hear about the termination of the F-1 visa status of 18 FIU students.” (As of Tuesday evening, at least 1,234 students at 209 colleges have had their visas revoked, in some cases for participating in campus protests but often for unclear reasons.)

    Legal scholars shared faculty members’ concerns about the fallout of such agreements.

    “It seems like this is designed to increase fear. And whether that’s by design or not, it is likely to increase racial profiling on campus, and it is not at all an effective way to police immigration,” Chacón said.

    Kagan said he would be unsurprised to see similar agreements at universities in other red states.

    “I think that it will accentuate the extremes in terms of how different university systems react to the reality that immigrants are part of their campus life,” he said. “You have one extreme, where Florida is saying, ‘Let’s hunt them down with our own police,’ while you have other university systems that have started programs to be more welcoming to undocumented students.”

    Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Florida Poly plans to sign an agreement with ICE on Wednesday.

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  • University of Florida Signs Agreement With ICE

    University of Florida Signs Agreement With ICE

    The University of Florida has signed an agreement to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help crack down on undocumented students, according to The Independent Florida Alligator, a student publication.

    The Florida Phoenix confirmed the report with a UF spokesperson, who said the university had agreed to deputize campus police as immigration officers but did not provide more details.

    The news broke the day after UF students held a rally on campus to protest the arrest and self-deportation of a Colombian student whom ICE agents stopped in late March for driving with an expired registration.

    UF is not the first institution in the state to commit to working with ICE; Florida Atlantic University signed a similar agreement earlier this month.

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  • ICE Detains U of Alabama Doctoral Student, Iran Native

    ICE Detains U of Alabama Doctoral Student, Iran Native

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained a University of Alabama doctoral student and Iranian native. A spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed in an email that the student “posed significant national security concerns” but didn’t clarify what those concerns were.

    The Crimson White student newspaper and other media previously identified the student as Alireza Doroudi. As of Thursday evening, the ICE website listed Doroudi as in ICE custody but didn’t note where he was.

    “ICE HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email to Inside Higher Ed Thursday. The department, which includes ICE, didn’t provide an interview.

    It’s unclear whether the detention is part of the Trump administration’s targeting of international students for alleged participation in pro-Palestinian protests, with immigration officers raiding their dorm rooms and revoking their visas.

    The Crimson White said Doroudi was “reportedly arrested by ICE officers” at his home around 5 a.m. Tuesday. A statement from the university said the student, whom the university didn’t name, was detained off campus. The Crimson White also reported that—according to a message in a group chat including Iranian students—Doroudi’s visa was revoked six months after he came to the U.S., but the university’s International Student and Scholar Services arm said he could stay in the country as long as he maintained his student status.

    The university didn’t provide Inside Higher Ed an interview Thursday or answer multiple written questions. Its emailed statement said, “Federal privacy laws limit what can be shared about an individual student.”

    “International students studying at the University are valued members of the campus community, and International Student and Scholar Services is available to assist international students who have questions,” the statement said. “UA has and will continue to follow all immigration laws and cooperate with federal authorities.”

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  • ICE Arrest of Green Card Holder Signals Crackdown on Israel Critics (Ted Rall)

    ICE Arrest of Green Card Holder Signals Crackdown on Israel Critics (Ted Rall)







    Higher Education Inquirer : ICE Arrest of Green Card Holder Signals Crackdown on Israel Critics (Ted Rall)




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  • Lawyer for Columbia University student detained by ICE for pro-Palestine protests speaks out (ABC News)

    Lawyer for Columbia University student detained by ICE for pro-Palestine protests speaks out (ABC News)

    ABC News’ Linsey Davis speaks with Baher Azmy, the lawyer for Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite having a green card. Khalil is currently detained in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facility in Jena, Louisiana.  A judge has temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation. President Trump says that this action is just the beginning of such actions by the government.  

    A petition to release Mahmoud Khalil from DHS detention is here. 

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  • Denver Public Schools sues over Trump policy allowing on-campus ICE raids

    Denver Public Schools sues over Trump policy allowing on-campus ICE raids

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    Dive Brief:

    • Denver Public Schools has issued the latest salvo in the battle over the Trump administration’s controversial new policy allowing immigration raids on school grounds with a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court. 
    • In Denver Public Schools v. Noem — believed to be the first lawsuit against the policy from a school system — the district seeks to undo the Trump administration’s Jan. 21 decision to allow immigration enforcement actions at “sensitive” locations such as schools, places where children gather, medical facilities and places of worship.
    • In the interim, Denver Public Schools is asking for a temporary restraining order to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection enforcement of the policy.

    Dive Insight:

    The new Trump policy lifted the practice of avoiding immigration enforcement activities at places where students gather. Versions of the protected areas guidance have been in place for more than 30 years, according to the Denver system’s 25-page lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

    According to the lawsuit, school attendance has dropped “noticeably” across all schools in the Denver district — and particularly in schools with “new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred” — since announcement of the new policy.

    The suit alleges that the policy is hurting the district’s ability to provide education and life services to children who aren’t attending school out of fear of immigration enforcement action. Colorado’s largest district, Denver Public Schools enrolls more than 90,000 students across 207 schools.

    In rescinding 2021 Biden administration language on the topic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a press release that the reversal would empower Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enforce immigration laws and catch criminals who are in the country illegally.

    “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement read. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

    In its lawsuit, however, Denver Public Schools alleges that the new policy “gives federal agents virtually unchecked authority to enforce immigration laws in formerly protected areas, including schools. As reported to the public, the sole restraint on agents is that they use their own subjective ‘common sense’ to determine whether to carry out enforcement activities at formally safeguarded locations such as schools.”

    The lawsuit further claims that the DHS directive has not been backed up with formal written guidance and seeks for such a policy to be made “available for public inspection.”

    In a Thursday statement to CBS News Colorado, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, said officers “would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”

    The Denver Public Schools lawsuit comes the same week as a challenge filed by 27 religious groups — including the Mennonite Church, Episcopal Church and Central Conference of American Rabbis — that accuses the new immigration policy of infringing upon their congregations’ religious freedoms. Another lawsuit filed in January and led by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a Quaker organization, also alleges the policy infringes upon religious freedoms.

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