ICE arrests Ferris State professor, previously convicted migrant, for sex offenses in Canada
ICE says the Ferris State professor had prior sex-crime convictions in Canada and sought legal status despite those disqualifying offenses.
ICE arrested the professor on Nov. 25 after discovering those offenses.
Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, has placed a professor on administrative leave after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him for being a “criminal illegal alien sex offender.”
“Ferris State University leaders on Tuesday became aware of accusations regarding professor Sumith Gunasekera,” David Murray, the associate vice president for marketing and communications at Ferris State, told Campus Reform in an email.
The professor “has been placed on administrative leave while the university gathers more information. This is a personnel issue and it would be inappropriate for the university to further discuss the matter.”
[RELATED: New Orleans law school trains students in ‘deportation defense’ for illegal aliens]
The Department of Homeland Security announced in a Nov. 25 press release that ICE had arrested Sumith Gunasekera for being a “criminal illegal alien sex offender.”
Gunasekera, an assistant professor at the College of Business, committed sex-related crimes in Canada, according to the department.
Ontario police arrested Gunasekera twice in 1998 for making death threats and “invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference.” Gunasekera later told officers that the sex “charge was related to a minor.”
Later that year, an Ontario criminal court found Gunasekera guilty for “utter threat to cause death or bodily harm and sexual interference.”
The press release also says the government has known about the professor’s convictions since 2012, when he sought to change his immigration status with Citizenship and Immigration Services.
ICE says that the professor has “repeatedly attempted to manipulate our immigration system between applications, denials, and appeals despite the convictions in Canada that made him ineligible for legal status in the United States.”
“It’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them,” the department’s assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the press release.
“Thanks to the brave ICE law enforcement officers, this sicko is behind bars and no longer able to prey on Americans,” she added. “His days of exploiting the immigration system are OVER. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminals are not welcome in the U.S.”
This case comes as colleges and universities often welcome illegal immigrants to their campuses, instead of cooperating with federal immigration law.
Campus Reform reported in March that the University of Maryland maintains the “Office of Immigrant and Undocumented Student Life” and offers an “UndocuTraining” for students.
The office encourages students to use phrases like “undocumented student,” “undocumented immigrant,” “people without documents,” or “people without legal status,” as opposed to “illegal alien,” which is “derogatory and dehumanizing.”
Student organizations at American University and George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and New York University have called for their schools to become “sanctuary campuses” for illegal immigrants this year.
