Protesters March Against Northeastern's Contract With ICE

BOSTON, MA — About 100 students, alumni and community members marched around Northeastern University campus Wednesday to protest a $7.8 million research contract that the university has with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"We're here because Northeastern has a contract with ICE that's worth millions," one person shouted into a megaphone to the crowd, to boos.

"But we're not going to just sit by and let that happen," she said to cheers.

After listening to a handful of speakers, the crowd marched around the campus sending chants echoing off of nearby school buildings. Chants like: "Shut down ICE" and "Education not deportation," and "Fight back end the contract," got honks from passing cars, and onlookers cheered.

The protest comes after news got out about the contract and some 2,000 people signed an online petition asking the university to cut all ties with the agency.

Carissa Aranda a third year law student at Northeastern said although the current contract is purportedly not related to immigration enforcement, it doesn't matter in her mind.

"With this contract, Northeastern is supporting ICE in every aspect of its endeavors. It has to end because by association they are perpetuating human rights violations," said Aranda, echoing the sentiment of the protest.

Recent policies of separating families that ICE enforced garnered attention nation-wide, including in Boston where thousands took to the Common in protest late last month.

"Peaceful protests are the hallmark of a great university. We celebrate the vigorous exchange of competing ideas, which is the basis of higher learning," said Renata Nyul, vice president for Communications at Northeastern University in a statement.

As for the future of the contract? Nyul said aside from the fact that professor who is under contract with ICE said he expected it to end in September, the university rep said stymieing a professor's freedom to choose what research to do and where they got their funding was "antithetical to academic freedom."

"Our commitment to academic freedom goes beyond protecting what professors say; it also means allowing faculty members to freely pursue research funding in their fields of expertise. Efforts to restrict which federal agencies a faculty member can approach for research funding are antithetical to academic freedom.
We hope everyone can agree to support freedom of academic inquiry—most importantly members of our own faculty," Nyul said in a statement.

Previously on Patch:

Activists To Protest Northeastern's Connection To ICE

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch