BALTIMORE, Md. — Johns Hopkins University students and staff walked out of their classrooms to demand that the institution ends its contracts with the ICE.
Students and staff rallied in front of the MSE library on the JHU Homewood Campus Wednesday morning after months of frustration over million dollar contracts that the school signed over a period of years providing educational services to ICE officers.
JHU members and Baltimore residents feel as though the institutions partnership with the ICE are key enablers of President Donald Trump’s racist immigration policies of mass detainment, deportation and family separation.
"We believe that our core values at Hopkins are completely incompatible with ICE's behavior and actions. And we believe that if Hopkins doesn't end these contracts they are actually sending a message to the immigrant community, to prospective students, to faculty members that they are not willing to stand up for immigrant's lives, that they are not prioritizing immigrant's lives, and they are willing to stand by the racist and xenophobic logic of this institution," said graduate student Samantha Agarwal.
Many students, including almost 2,000 university affiliates, have signed a petition to end JHU's partnership with ICE. But, the institution's president claims that they are just protecting "academic freedom" and that this partnership “ultimately benefits those who interact with ICE," according to a member from the Hopkins Coalition against ICE.
For more information on the campaign, click here.
