Inside the "ICE Off Campus" Movement

"In the basement of Pupin Hall, where Columbia scientists conducted research as part of the Manhattan Project some 87 years ago, dozens of students piled into a lecture hall for an 8 pm emergency teach-in about the Department of Homeland Security on campus. Around 10 hours earlier, the Columbia community had been notified by e-mail that federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security had entered a university residence under the false pretenses of searching for a missing child and instead arrested an international student, Ellie Aghayeva."

"Activists on campus mobilized quickly. By noon, just two hours after Aghayeva's detention was confirmed by Columbia, hundreds of community members had gathered outside the university's gates to protest. That evening's teach-in had been organized by a coalition of activist and affinity groups, many of them coming together for the first time, to help inform and mobilize students who wanted to get more involved after the protest."

"At the demonstration, organizers set out three demands: first, that Columbia become a sanctuary campus; second, that it stop working with President Donald Trump's administration; and third, that all students detained by DHS be released."

Following the arrest of international student Ellie Aghayeva by Department of Homeland Security agents at Columbia University, students rapidly mobilized to support vulnerable populations on campus. Federal agents falsely claimed to be searching for a missing child before detaining Aghayeva at a university residence. Within hours, hundreds of community members gathered to protest outside Columbia's gates. Student activists, affinity groups, and faculty organized an emergency teach-in to inform and mobilize additional supporters. The coalition presented three demands: designating Columbia as a sanctuary campus, ending university cooperation with the Trump administration, and releasing all detained students. This incident exemplifies broader nationwide efforts by students to form alliances with faculty groups, unions, and alumni to protect undocumented and international students facing increased enforcement pressure.

Read at The Nation