Several campus and community groups are calling on Ohio State University to pull U.S. Customs and Border Protection recruiters from an upcoming career fair.
Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences will hold its spring career fairs on Jan. 20 at the Ohio Union. Among the 150 public and private sector employers participating in the event is Customs and Border Protection, an agency overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.
Though overseen by DHS, CBP is different from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to DHS, ICE enforces immigration law within the country and CBP handles security at U.S. entry points and enforces immigration along the border.
ICE is facing increased backlash after a Minneapolis woman was fatally shot by an agent earlier this month. Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7, sparking a response from many nationwide about the agency’s goals and use of force.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance said in a Jan. 9 news release that the organization identified at least 214 people arrested by ICE during “Operation Buckeye,” an immigration enforcement blitz in Ohio. The organization said in an analysis of publicly available jail rosters that 80 percent of the people detained were Latino, and less than 10 percent were African.
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson said the agency has attended the event for several years in a row.
“Typically, employers who have attended in the past are invited to attend again,” Johnson said.
Columbus 50501, a local chapter of the national advocacy group, posted a statement on its Instagram account Jan. 15 calling on the university to “pull DHS/ICE from their spring job fair.
“One of Ohio State’s core principles is ‘putting people at the center of all we do.’ Meanwhile, ICE and DHS are terrorizing people across the country, including here in Columbus. People are being traumatized, beaten, and killed,” the statement read.
“Ohio State’s diverse student population deserves the backing of the University,” it continued. “If The Ohio State University truly care about their principles and values, they will pull DHS/ICE from their job fair.”
The organization posted a note later in the day clarifying that advocates did not know if ICE will be present on campus but knew that “DHS certainly will be recruiting for multiple disciplines.”
Ohio State’s Graduate Student Alliance called on its members and other university students to email administrators to “request that they refrain from using ICE on our campus.”
“ICE has no place at OSU,” OSUGSA’s statement read. “Contacting members of our university is one way that we can peacefully, but firmly, protest activities that put students, faculty, and staff at risk.”
When asked if the university had any concerns with CBP being on campus given recent events in Columbus and Minneapolis, Johnson said: “As with all large gatherings, Department of Public Safety and Campus Activism and Event Engagement will assess and staff appropriately.”
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State students tell university to remove CBP recruiters from job fair
Reporting by Sheridan Hendrix, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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