The College Fix

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has pulled out of the University of Maryland’s upcoming job fair amid student protests and outrage.

“ICE vanished from the list of recruiters for the Feb. 27-28 event one day after the Student Government Association unanimously passed a bill asking the university to ‘retract its invitation’ over concerns that ‘recent federal actions and enforcement efforts’ could violate the privacy of undocumented undergraduates, employees and their families,” the Washington Times reported.

“We believe all students regardless of immigration status should feel safe and protected in their residences, classrooms and dining halls,” student Louis Mancuso, the student government’s communications director, told the Times. “We are not trying to aid or abet anyone, but we want to avoid people being afraid to attend the career fair because ICE might profile and take them into custody.”

According to the student newspaper the Diamondback, the student government bill called for “denying ICE officials access to non-public campus areas and refusing voluntary disclosure of any student records such as immigration status,” adding:

Multiple student groups in the Anti-Imperialist Movement at UMD coalition shared a petition on Instagram Sunday and posted flyers around campus urging this university to bar the agency from the spring fair and all future career fairs.

The petition — promoted by student organizations such as this university’s Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society, Students for Justice in Palestine and UMD Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines — argued that ICE’s presence at the career fair would compromise both student and employee safety.

Administrators told the student newspaper the outrage over ICE’s involvement in the fair did not play a role in the agency’s decision to back out. And in an email Tuesday to the Washington Times, university spokesperson Rebecca Aloisi said “ICE has decided not to participate in the Spring Career and Internship Fair and canceled their registration.”

This is not the first time ICE has caused controversy on campus. Earlier this month at Duke University, leftist student groups complained that ICE recruiters at a job fair there represented a “societal attack against our humanity.”

Also this month, Loyola University-Chicago students were thrown into a panic as rumors spread that an ICE agent was on campus, the College Fix reported. In actuality, it was a Census Bureau worker.

MORE: ‘Laken Riley Act’: Trump cracks down on illegal immigration with law named for murdered student

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