BUZZ
ANALYSIS: Almost half of signatories are ‘patients’; did hospital employees go around soliciting signatures?
A petition that’s garnered roughly 600 signatures from Brown University “community members” is calling for the dismissal of the new university hospital security vice president — because he once led the U.S. Border Patrol.
According to The Brown Daily Herald, Jason Owens worked for the Border Patrol for almost 30 years, and was named chief in 2023. He retired last year, and started at Brown University Health this summer.
His employment at Brown did not sit well with the Rhode Island chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which noted in an Instagram post that “eight Brown and [state] organizations have joined the call” for Owens’ firing from BUH.
“It is disgusting that after nearly two years of a mass movement against immigration enforcement here in Rhode Island, Brown University Health would hire someone who has led a system of intimidation and violence against immigrants,” the post says.
Brown Rise Up “coordinator” Raya Gupta said that “No one who I’ve spoken to about this thinks it’s okay to have former Border Patrol running anything in hospitals.”
The PSL’s Kenneth Kalu told the Herald that Owen’s hiring is “shameful and unacceptable.”
“Hiring an official who led a system of migrant intimidation, repression and detention to run the hospital system is an implicit threat to immigrant patients,” Kalu said. “We cannot trust a former immigration enforcement official to protect Rhode Island’s hospitals and ensure that immigrant patients can access care without fear.”
Brown graduate Christopher Botelho (pictured), a now-former BUH employee who uses “he/she/they” pronouns, said he/she/they ultimately decided to resign his/her/their position as a data coordinator after responding to Chief of Hospital Operations Sarah Frost’s email announcement of Owens’ hiring.
Botelho said Owens’ position “might even further discourage individuals seeking care” at the BUH: “Undocumented folks are considering: ‘Do I go to the hospital? Do I get taken care of?’”
Botelho (the first signatory of the petition) is featured in this PSL video denouncing Owens.
The “Remove Jason Owens as VP of Security!” petition states Owens led agencies “responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration policy at the border amid widespread reports of violence, abuse, and mistreatment of migrants.
“During his service, CBP doubled the number of remote border surveillance towers, arrested more people at the border than at any other point within the 21st century, and sent agents on missions to destroy food and water left for migrants by aid groups.”
The Herald notes the petition is signed by “more than 40 current and former BUH employees” and “over 150 […] Brown undergraduate students or alumni.”
A word-count analysis also shows 242 of the signatories are Brown University Health patients. Did hospital employees go around collecting signatures … or direct patients to the petition website?
The College Fix reached out to the Herald via email with this question, but did not receive a response.
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