Recently, ICE was compelled to withdraw from a job fair at Arizona State University following protests by faculty and students. Now, students will also be prevented from speaking with ICE at another job fair at the University of Maine, according to The Maine Campus.
ICE was removed from the list of employers on the university website following the outcry.
Various student groups and the UMaine Graduate Workers Union demanded that ICE not appear on campus. The Union posted a call for a protest, declaring, “Our campus community is safer without CBP on campus. It’s UMaine’s responsibility to protect all students and employees from possible targeting. We demand CBP be uninvited from this event!”
False rumors were spread about ICE raids scheduled to coincide with the visit, an obviously ridiculous claim meant to spread panic and protests.
These employees and students have succeeded in keeping other students from seeking badly needed jobs. They are effectively demanding that others limit their choices to employers that they find acceptable. The university has been largely silent during this controversy. The university should have (as did my own university) reaffirmed that this agency and other federal agencies are welcome to speak with any students who are interested in a career with the federal government. Instead, it simply released a weak statement about “ensur[ing] a safe, inclusive and productive event focused on student success.”
President Joan Ferrini-Mundy should advocate for students who want access to this agency on campus. The union members and these protesters have the freedom to make their own employment choices. They should not dictate such choices for others.
Seems to me the best job candidates for ICE, as well as for many other government agencies and private employers as well, won’t be found on these leftist university campuses anyways. Perhaps they should reevaluate their recruiting strategy? Why try to hire people who have spent four years or more being politically propagandized rather than actually educated in something useful?
ICE on campus is threatening a “safe and inclusive” environment? Get real
The students, & faculty, need to look in the mirror and ask why they are so much against law enforcement. By doing so they are stifling the opinions of others, which is the beginnings of a Gestapo to silence their thoughts.
Higher education in colleges & universities is supposed to be a time of expressing thoughts & ideas with others, not lambasting those with whom they disagree. Students need to understand they are not in charge, and if they aren’t open to discussion with others, then they are the gestapo.
Re: The students and faculty…
Hoisting themselves by their own petards, they are,