Seattle University gives ICE the cold shoulder

A university in Washington State suspended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) externship program following community pressure.

Seattle University’s law school hosted an externship fair, in which ICE offered students an externship for course credit. The university decided to suspend the program on Oct. 31 after receiving backlash from students and community members concerned with the practices of the agency, according to the school’s student newspaper, The Spectator.   

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One law student, Alex Romero, believed that ICE’s treatment of illegal immigrants goes against the mission of the university, and raised his concerns to the externship program’s office, as reported by The Spectator.

Seattle University’s law school did not plan to suspend the program initially, but after Romero petitioned and gained support within the community, the university changed course. The school is also planning to take the issue up with the its Social Justice Leadership Committee to get the group’s recommendations.

Annette Clark, the school’s Dean of Law, claimed in an email that Seattle University is a signatory of a policy “which condemns administration policies that have led to the unjust and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and migrant families, practices that continue today and that directly affect members of our community,” according to The Spectator.

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ICE representatives are prohibited from recruiting on campus during the suspension.

Campus Reform reached out to the university and to ICE but did not receive any responses in time for publication.

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