University of Illinois Grad Students Demand Removal of ICE and Border Patrol Job Listings

Graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are demanding that the school hinder students’ opportunities to seek employment with ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol by removing their job listings from the school’s career services platform, claiming that “thousands” of people have suffered and died at the hands of the United States’ “racist immigration policies.”

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is under scrutiny by the Graduate Employees Organization labor union (GEO) for posting job listings from ICE, the Border Patrol, as well as other opportunities at DHS.

The GEO union, which is made up of graduate employees at the university, is demanding that the school remove the job listings via petition, in a bizarre attempt to prevent UIUC students from obtaining jobs within one of the cabinet departments of the United States federal government.

“We demand to know exactly who in DHS is using this technology and that UIUC cease participation in any programs that facilitate the work of the U.S. Border Patrol, ICE, or any other DHS program implicated in human rights abuses,” stated the GOE’s “Solidarity Committee” in a Facebook post last week.

“U of I should not allow a racist and abusive organization to recruit students,” continued the committee, adding that the university’s Career Services and Student Affairs should remove job postings for “the Border Patrol and for all other agencies involved in the abuse of migrants.”

“U of I should cease partnering with the DHS and providing research and technological support to these agencies,” affirms the petition, claiming that “thousands” have “suffered abuse and death at the hands of the US’s racist immigration policies.”

“Nevertheless,” continued the petition, “the career services platform that thousands of Illinois students use to find jobs and internships, currently hosts multiple job postings at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

“If you don’t want to work for ICE or the Department of Homeland Security, then you simply do no to apply for those jobs, its as simple as that,” said UIUC’s Turning Point USA chapter president Madeleine Hubbard to Breitbart News.

The student added that she found it “extremely inappropriate” for the GEO to be calling on the university to close off job opportunities for students.

“I don’t like that my [teaching assistants] are part of this organization that is working to take job opportunities away from students,” said Hubbard, adding that this has not been the first time the graduate students have made poor use of their time as employees of the university.

“The Graduate Employees Organization was on strike for two weeks last semester, and it was extremely frustrating because a lot of my classes were canceled,” added the student.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.