International Students Allowed To Stay, ICE No Longer Problematic Now

Last Wednesday, MIT, Harvard, and other institutions successfully lobbied Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to rescind a rule barring international students from returning to the U.S. for online college. After the decision was reversed, these institutions released a press statement, triumphantly claiming they “fixed the whole ICE thing! Thank God we can talk about something else.”

When pushed as to whether Harvard University would use its political capital to help fight against ICE’s human rights abuses at detention centers, locate the approximately fifteen hundred missing children in its system, and push to end raids that target migrant families, Harvard representative Bernard Smith shrugged and responded: “I mean, we released a statement of solidarity, but we are just one immensely influential institution; we don’t really have a seat at the table. That stuff is crazy, though. Damn.”

Mikayla Collins, Dartmouth ’23, was one of many student activists across the country to encourage her college to submit an amicus brief against the Trump Administration’s plan and to ensure other protections for international students regardless of the court’s final decision.

“It is my responsibility as a Dartmouth student to use my privilege to make sure my international peers are safe. This is proof that activism, no matter how small it may seem, really makes a difference. We won.”

When asked whether she planned to similarly advocate for the rights of people held in detention centers or facing deportation, Collins opened Instagram before asking, “Wait, do I know any of them?”

 

 

-SL ’22