Bobby Huggins, PhD student and organizer at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri and organizer with HELU’s International Campus Worker Protections Campaign
The Trump administration’s attacks on foreign workers in general, and international students in particular, has been nothing short of harrowing. We are all familiar with the headlines regarding students who have been kidnapped off the street, illegally deported, or bullied into so-called “self-deportation”. Those in higher education will also be aware of the thousands of visa revocations and SEVIS terminations faced by international students of no particular public profile, on the flimsiest of pretexts. Though many of the broadest and a few of the most egregious such attacks have been stalled or reversed by the courts, the fear echoes on.
As a PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis, I have spoken to international students who are afraid to attend a rally, to exercise their legal right to unionize, or to leave any footprint of their political leanings. I know close friends who had to make the heartbreaking decision to avoid visiting ailing family members for fear that they would find themselves unable to return to finish the education they spent years dedicating themselves to. The fear and uncertainty provoked by these attacks has a profound chilling effect — of course, that is the point.
It is heartbreaking to watch my country betray the millions of international workers that help make the US a global leader in research and scholarship — to say nothing of the millions more outside of academia who keep this country running. It is likewise tragic to watch as many formerly respectable institutions of higher education betray their own students and principles, either actively, as in the case of Columbia University, or by passive inaction, silence, and complicity, as in the case of my own institution. It seems the administrations of some universities and colleges prefer “a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
I should have seen this betrayal coming. In many ways, the recent attacks on higher ed serve the administrative interests of modern, financialized colleges and universities. The Trump fig-leaf provides a convenient excuse for these commercial institutions to roll back their own begrudgingly implemented DEI initiatives, to crack down on student protestors, and, above all, to keep their workers scared and thereby compliant.
In the US, foreign-born scholars make up nearly 25% of Master’s students, 40% of PhD students, 50% of post-doctoral researchers, and 30% of faculty — to say nothing of the vital administrative staff, service employees, and other professionals who keep our universities running. When nearly half of our workforce can’t speak out without fear, it undermines our collective power to organize.
That is why HELU is coordinating a national effort among campus organizers to build strategic, long-term resistance to the escalating federal attacks on international students and workers. We’re organizing around shared demands for our institutions through coordinated, escalating action.
We are demanding that our institutions:
· Provide financial and legal support for individuals impacted by disruptions to their legal immigration status.
· Protect the legal, academic, and employment status of affected workers, and develop procedures for continuing work and education abroad in cases of necessary departure.
· Reject voluntary cooperation with DHS, ICE, and other partnering agencies without proper legal process.
· Cease surveilling their student bodies and destroy records of personally identifying information related to legal protest activities.
· Communicate transparently and in a timely manner with all students, workers, and community members about national immigration policy and enforcement measures and related campus policies.
· Vocally uphold the civil liberties and academic freedoms of all campus workers and students.
· Recognize the rights of all workers, regardless of citizenship status, to organize and collectively bargain.
We cannot win this fight alone. Since launching our campaign in early September, we have gathered signatures from 24 union locals, professional associations, and organizations across 16 states. But we need all hands on deck. Visit our website to read our demands in full and learn how you can step up to protect international campus workers.