About 100 University of Maryland community members marched across campus Wednesday to protest this university’s willingness to host ICE and defense contractors as employers at the Spring Career Fair.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are no longer participating in the career fair, this university wrote in a statement Wednesday. This university confirmed Thursday that the three exhibitors were initially registered for the career fair and were not disinvited.
The career fair began Wednesday and is scheduled through Friday at The Hotel at the University of Maryland.
Protesters gathered by the sundial on McKeldin Mall, chanting phrases such as “ICE has got to go” and “Immigrants are welcome here.” The group later marched to the Thomas V. Miller Jr. Administration Building, the Engineering Fields and the intersection of Campus Drive and Route 1.
The Anti-Imperialist Movement at UMD, a coalition of student organizations — including 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 — organized the protest.
Protest organizers demanded transparency about the university’s interactions with ICE and urged this university to not allow employers engaged in “crimes against humanity” at the career fair, according to an Instagram post from the coalition. Protestors said they also wanted to bring awareness to this university’s connections to defense contractors.
[UPDATED: ICE drops out of UMD spring career fair]
Martin Siles-Diaz, the co-vice president of PLUMAS, said protestors wanted to pressure the administration and ensure students are not complacent in the pipeline encouraging graduates to work with defense contractors or immigration enforcement.
“[The university] has a direct role in supplying students [with] intellectual and technical expertise,” the senior sociology major said. “They abuse the career aspirations of many of the students here that more often than not, may not agree with a lot of the complicit industry.”
ICE has come under scrutiny from many students after U.S. President Donald Trump signed 10 executive orders about immigration during his first week in office, including promises of mass deportations.
This university does not endorse or sponsor employers at the career fair. Organizations are included in the career fair for recruiting purposes.
“We care about our students and want to hear from them, and we remind them that resources are available to every individual in our community,” this university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback Wednesday.
Wednesday’s protest follows a petition from the coalition on Feb. 9 that advocated for ICE to be removed as a recruiter at the career fair. The petition garnered more than 2,000 signatures, according to a Wednesday news release from the coalition.
The coalition plans to host sit-ins during the career fair Thursday and Friday, according to an Instagram post from the organization.
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Terp CHRP chair Elijah Emley said though the three employers are no longer participating in the career fair, the protest was still important because other defense contractors — such as BAE Systems — are participating.
“By funneling students to work at these places, they enable the continuation of the violence and plunder of the Global South,” the senior environmental science and technology major said.
Claudia Barragan, a university alum and College Park resident, said she attended the protest to pressure the university to be clear about its support of the immigrant community on campus. Barragan, an immigrant from Bolivia, said she felt scared and upset at this university allowing ICE at the career fair.
“It’s basically like my neighbor invited ICE to have tea with them, without letting anybody know, and really putting me in danger as a neighbor,” Barragan said.
Kendrick Wilson, an organizer for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 51, said his fellow union members support students in the coalition because “the immigrant community is the blue-collar working community.””
Wilson attended the protest to back the new generation and give himself hope for the country’s future, he said. Wilson said this university’s willingness to include controversial companies crossed the line of free speech.
“If you’ve got a community of people and you’re bringing in organizations that make that community feel unsafe, then that, I think, is the line,” Wilson said.
