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Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s “documented history of inflicting significant harm on immigrant communities and communities of color nationwide,” prompted the Stanford University student government to support a nationwide “walkout” last Friday.
The Undergraduate Senate accused ICE agents of creating harm via “aggressive raids, family separation, prolonged detention, racial profiling, and the use of force in civilian spaces, resulting in lasting psychological, economic, and physical harm to students and their families.”
The resolution passed the student senate 11-0 on Wednesday and the Graduate Student Council 11-0-2 on Thursday.
“This is calling for collective amplification that turns moments of grief, anger, fear … [into] a demonstration,” Undergraduate Senate Chair David Sengthay told the Stanford Daily.
Stanford student, and Minneapolis native Sabrina Deriche, said she wants ICE abolished.
“Shut it down until ICE is no longer on anyone’s streets,” she said, according to the student newspaper.
The signers included Students for Justice in Palestine, the Black Student Union, and Fossil Free Stanford, as well as the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
The student government representatives criticized Minneapolis’ Operation Metro Surge, which sought to remove illegal immigrants from the streets of the Minnesota city. During this operation, two anti-ICE activists were killed during confrontations with federal law enforcement.
Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti appear to have been involved with anti-ICE groups that sought to disrupt law enforcement operations.
Video released by the BBC last week shows an irate Pretti kicking out the taillight of an officer’s car just days before he was killed during a fight with ICE agents.
Minnesota officials have tried to stop Operation Metro Surge through judicial fiat. However, a judge ruled over the weekend that ICE could continue operations, according to CBS News.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized the decision and said federal law enforcement is participating in an “invasion.”
“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place,” Mayor Frey stated.
“This operation has not brought public safety,” he said. “It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is highlighting the violent criminals arrested during Operation Metro Surge.
The arrestees include an Ecuadorian man “convicted for aggravated sexual assault,” a man from Laos who also have a sexual assault conviction, and an El Salvadoran man who has a “vehicle theft” and drunk driving conviction.
“We are calling on Minnesota politicians to allow us into their jails to arrest criminal illegal aliens instead of releasing them back into American communities to commit more crimes and create more victims,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. “We need Minnesota to honor the ICE arrest detainers of the more than 1,360 illegal aliens in their custody.”
MORE: UMinn edits public statement about Alex Pretti death after backlash
