Representatives from five UChicago faculty, staff, and student unions held a press conference on Friday morning outside Levi Hall to criticize the University’s response to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence on the South Side. They called for an end to what they called the University’s “inaction” and for more protection for the University community should ICE agents attempt to enter a building on campus.
The University has said it will cooperate with federal enforcement as required by law and directed students to online resources, but union members called for a more direct approach.
The event featured speakers from American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at the University of Chicago, Graduate Students United–UE 1103 (GSU-UE), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) at the Lab School, Faculty Forward, and National Nurses United (NNU).
Federal agents briefly detained a UChicago international student last month, marking the first documented instance of a University-affiliated person being detained by immigration authorities on or around campus. Agents have also detained at least four other people in the Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Woodlawn areas.
“Violent kidnappings and assaults by federal agents are not happening in some distant Chicago, beyond ‘the life of the mind,’” said Diana Schwartz Francisco, an assistant instructional professor of history and a member of both Faculty Forward and AAUP. “They’re happening in our neighborhoods. They’re happening right here.”
Schwartz Francisco called on the University to publicly reiterate that guns are not allowed in University buildings and that ICE agents cannot enter buildings without a judicial warrant. She also asked for “recognition that it is the University’s responsibility to both protect its most vulnerable members and recognize that the federal occupation is a threat to us all, regardless of our immigration or legal status,” she said.
International students in GSU-UE have also expressed concerns that the University is not keeping them safe, according to Ksenia Podvoiskaia, a GSU-UE spokesperson and an international graduate student from Canada. In a meeting with GSU-UE last week, the University administration “expressed their shared concern at the violence displayed by federal immigration authorities and their earnest desire to help,” she said. “However, when it came to committing to any meaningful action, they returned to the tiring refrain we have heard from them time and again.”
During the meeting, GSU-UE had requested that the University put up signs on building doors stating that ICE would not be allowed on campus without a judicial warrant, Podvoiskaia explained.
According to the UChicago Department of Safety and Security’s website, “Outside law enforcement personnel generally are permitted to access otherwise open, publicly accessible areas of the University. Without a search warrant, they do not have a right to access non-public spaces.”
NNU will negotiate issues surrounding federal agent presence as a “workplace violence issue,” registered nurse Amber Turi said. Although Turi explained that the University administration had directed UCMed staff to contact Public Safety and Legal Affairs if ICE visits a UChicago facility, “we know this is not enough,” she said.
“When ICE attacks immigrants and other activists, they take the people they injure to our hospitals. These federal agents bring fear and panic to these places that must remain safe spaces for healing. People are forgoing basic healthcare because they are terrified of ICE,” Turi said.
Concerns about ICE presence on the South Side have also led to changes in the UChicago Lab School’s operations, according to Lab School teacher Quinn Menchetti, who spoke on behalf of AFT. “We have stopped blowing whistles at recess to call kids in from monkey bars, swing sets, and four square games because they are afraid.” He later clarified that students associate whistles with warnings of federal agent activity.
Jeffrey Howard, executive vice president of SEIU Local 73, considered UChicago’s larger role in American higher education. “To just idly stand on the sideline and say, ‘We’re doing what’s legally required’—it’s not enough.… It’s sad that one of the leading institutions in the United States chooses to sit on their hands instead of taking the fight to this president and this fascist regime.”
He called on the University to act on behalf of its students: “University of Chicago, do what you’re charged to do: educate the leaders of the future. And you can’t do that sitting on your hands, allowing the things that are happening on this campus to happen.”
Gabriel Kraemer contributed reporting.
