NYU prides itself as a global institution. It has the largest number of international students of any university in the United States, and time and time again, has remained unwaveringly committed to the safety of its international community. In 2017, former NYU President Andrew Hamilton said that the university would “vigorously uphold the privacy protections” of its international students days after the Trump administration’s executive order barring entry into the United States from several countries. He backed the student body, and said the university would not permit federal officials to gather information about members of NYU’s international community regardless of changes to immigration policies. However, today — amid a blatantly repressive and consequential crackdown on immigration — NYU has remained deafeningly silent.
Over the last few months, President Donald Trump has weaponized immigration enforcement against noncitizen students and faculty who have protested Israel’s ongoing siege in Gaza as part of his crusade against higher education. The federal government has targetted at least nine student and faculty protesters from several U.S. colleges under fire for pro-Palestinian activity under the characterization of “antisemitic harassment” — regardless of whether the students have a green card, a student visa or undocumented status. Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, Brown University professor Rasha Alawieh: These noncitizens have been abducted outside their homes or on their way to class by officers in plain clothing, transferred to detention facilities hundreds of miles from where they live.
NYU — alongside a slew of higher education institutions in the country — has played a role in enabling the Trump administration’s reckless response to anti-war protest. In response to on-campus demonstrations, NYU had authorized the New York City Police Department to arrest students and faculty on three separate occasions, and has issued an onslaught of suspensions for those who publicly spoke in favor of Palestinian rights. The university has even updated its own student conduct guidelines to stifle speech opposing Zionism. Given that NYU itself has been at the forefront of punishing on-campus activists over the last two years, it isn’t surprising that the university has yet to publicly shield its students and faculty from federal retribution.
Contrary to Hamilton’s condemnation of Trump’s travel ban, current NYU leadership has stated that it will “comply with the law” when it comes to the new administration’s mass deportation efforts. Similarly, NYU Langone Health has instructed its employees to “not try to actively help a person avoid being found by ICE.”
NYU has a responsibility to protect student and faculty activists from political retaliation. The university must commit to non-cooperation with ICE and immediately declare itself a sanctuary campus, wherein the university would adopt policies to protect students at risk — both documented and undocumented — and limit cooperation with federal immigration agencies. At every opportunity to defend the rights of its community members or protect their civil liberties, NYU has instead caved to the pressure of pro-Israeli donors and the Trump administration, hoping to avoid public scrutiny and punitive federal measures and funding cuts at the expense of the safety of its community. The university cannot boast about its vast global network if it actively neglects the people responsible for it.
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