Friday, May 1 was May Day, and communities across the U.S. marked the occasion with rallies supporting workers’ rights.
Protesters at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign gathered outside the administration building as they demanded administrators provide greater support for immigrant students and workers.
“Probably the vast majority of international students are afraid to attend any sort of rally, even a non-confrontational one, just because they’re concerned that immigration enforcement might be active, might target rallies like these,” said protest organizer Xenia Osterhout.
The protesters submitted a petition to administrators demanding U of I more proactively support immigrant students and staff. They called for the school to use its alert system to notify community members if federal immigration agents are present on campus and let staff work from home when there’s ICE activity in the area.
The petition also calls for the university to stop working with companies with ICE contracts, including the airline company GlobalX.
The university has said it does not have a contract with GlobalX. The New York Times reported the NCAA does contract with the company. U of I has said the athletic association controls athletes’ travel arrangements to championship games and U of I does not have a role in that.
Trumpeter Pete Shungu is a teaching assistant professor in the music school. He pulled together a small band that played music to help emphasize the students’ message.
“I don’t think that faculty should be faculty unless they are invested in the future of the students. And for me personally, this is one way to walk what I’m talking,” Shungu said.
Illinois law prohibits local police departments from working with immigration agents unless there’s a warrant from a judge.
Shungu said it was scary to hear rumors that ICE agents were coming to town over the weekend. Even when the federal agents turned out to be from the FBI, he did not feel completely relieved.
“There’s just a lot of fear that anything associated with the federal government can potentially be harmful to communities, particularly immigrants, but also other communities,” Shungu said. “Anyone who actively opposes the federal administration.”
Two university administrators at the protest took the petition and said they would look it over.