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University of Chicago students, staff and faculty union members demanded that the school stop “sitting on [its] hands” and take a stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the city during a press conference on Friday.
Representatives from five school unions spoke out against the university’s alleged “inaction” regarding Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement initiative targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records in Chicago.
The operation drew intense backlash from some local residents, including University of Chicago assistant professor Eman Abdelhadi, who was arrested last month on felony charges at an anti-ICE rally.
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“Violent kidnappings and assaults by federal agents are not happening in some distant Chicago, beyond ‘the life of the mind,’” assistant professor Diana Schwartz Francisco said, according to The Maroon, the school’s student newspaper. “They’re happening in our neighborhoods. They’re happening right here.”
SEIU Local union executive vice president Jeffrey Howard said that, as a higher institution, the University of Chicago has a duty to push back against what he called the “fascist regime” enacted through the ICE raids.
“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,” Howard said.
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He added, “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.”
According to the Hyde Park Herald, the union representatives gave the school a list of demands that included barring ICE agents from entering buildings without a judicial warrant, notifying the school community about ICE activity in the area, posting signs barring ICE agents from entering buildings and publicly affirming students’ right to learn without federal interference.
The University of Chicago’s website updated guidelines regarding ICE activity on Nov. 5 and noted that federal officers “are required to present valid warrants to access locked or other non-public spaces on University property absent certain exigent circumstances or approval.”
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However, the guidelines also state that the University of Chicago “cooperates with outside agencies as required by law, while protecting the rights and privacy of students, faculty, and staff.”
Francisco called the guidelines “patronizing and negligent.”
“It implies that the threat of encounter with ICE or federal agents is an individual problem that can be remedied with individual action, when in reality, this is an institutional problem that requires proactive, clear policies and protection from the university,” Francisco said.
In a comment to Fox News Digital, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “These smears referring to ICE law enforcement as fascists and calling for violence against them is disgusting and God forbid it is going to get a law enforcement officer killed. Our officers’ risk their lives every day to arrest the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists.”
University of Chicago spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan referred to the school’s guidelines when reached for comment.
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