Johns Hopkins Students Demand Protection from ICE After University Memo
A wave of concern and activism has emerged at Johns Hopkins University following the release of a memo instructing faculty and staff not to intervene if federal law enforcement officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, arrive on campus to detain a community member. This memo, issued by the Hopkins Office of General Counsel, has sparked outrage among students, faculty, and local residents, who are demanding greater protection for vulnerable members of the university community, particularly non-citizens and undocumented individuals.
University Guidance Sparks Outcry
The memo from the Office of General Counsel outlined protocols for encounters with federal law enforcement officers on campus. It stated that while many areas within Johns Hopkins campuses and facilities are open to the public and accessible to federal law enforcement officers without special permission, certain non-public areas, such as residence halls, classrooms, administrative offices, and some clinical spaces, require a valid warrant or court order for entry.
The memo instructed employees to calmly request that officers wait and contact the appropriate public safety officer if they seek to enter a nonpublic area. Crucially, it also stated that employees should not accept "service of any legal document" and, most controversially, should "not intervene" if a federal law enforcement officer takes action, even without awaiting guidance from Johns Hopkins legal and/or public safety personnel.
Specifically, the memo instructed employees not to obstruct the officers’ activities, block their movement, notify the person being sought, or "engage in any behavior in an effort to enable them to leave the premises or hide."
This guidance has been met with strong criticism, with many viewing it as a failure by the university to protect its students and a prioritization of funding and reputation over the safety and well-being of its community members.
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Student and Community Response
The Hopkins Justice Collective (HJC), a group of students, affiliates, and alumni that supports Palestinian causes, responded to the memo by sending a letter to Hopkins leadership demanding that the university become a "sanctuary campus." The HJC called for Hopkins to prohibit ICE from being on campus and to refuse compliance with federal law enforcement officers.
In an interview with The News-Letter, a student member of HJC argued that the memo sent by the University demonstrated the lack of action taken by Hopkins to protect students. “We decided to hold this news conference outside Johns Hopkins, because this university has instructed its faculty to not intervene if students are abducted by ICE…,“ she said.
Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE), the Hopkins’ graduate student union, has also taken action. The union voted to use a portion of their membership dues as an emergency fund for students affected by ICE. Stephen Schmidt, the union’s communications chair, emphasized that "our organizing is ultimately the thing that keeps us safe, in a way that the wishy-washy nature of the university, in terms of complying or claiming they might not or changing their mind, is not able to."
TRU-UE sent a letter with five demands to President Ronald J, including demands that the University stand behind their core values by publicly establishing itself as against the politicization of research through participating in legal action against the administration, as well as broadly providing legal and policy resources and support to targeted researchers. Specifically, the letter contended that there has been a lack of action from the University relative to other institutions. “Even as peer institutions like Yale, Princeton, and Tufts take action to support their students, faculty, and workers, Johns Hopkins has hidden from view, only signing onto one lawsuit against this administration’s overreach-against the cuts to NIH indirect funds,” they wrote.
Students, alumni, and local residents are also taking matters into their own hands to demand more. Sonia Shah, a neighbor of Hopkins, drafted a letter to Michael Bloomberg, one of the university’s biggest donors, urging him to pressure school leaders into doing more. The letter has collected over 250 signatures.
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Concerns over ICE Activity and Federal Actions
These concerns arise amid increased reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting Pro-Palestine students and professors nationwide. There are increasing concerns in the community arising from recent federal immigration actions where it appears as though individuals are not receiving full due process under the law, a basic tenet of the American legal system.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated that he had been signing letters daily to revoke visas since late January. He has told the Homeland Security Department to detain students, or recent graduates, for deportation for their opposition to American foreign policy, including those taking pro-Palestinian stances.
The case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral student and Fulbright scholar from Turkey who was detained, highlights these concerns. Ozturk, one of several authors of a student newspaper essay calling for Tufts to support Palestinian rights and divest from Israel, had her visa revoked. She was seized off a street outside her home and transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, despite a federal judge ordering agents not to remove her from Massachusetts without prior notice.
Calls for Broader Action and Support
Many are calling for a broader coalition of community organizers and higher education institutions, including Hopkins, to protect students and push for change. Juliana Paré-Blagoev, an associate professor at Hopkins’ school of education and president of Hopkins’ chapter of the American Association of University Professors, emphasized the need for collective action, stating, “None of these types of attacks on our fundamental freedoms are going to be met by any one organization.”
An independent Hopkins is a strong Hopkins. The letter demands that Governor Moore and Attorney General Brown take action to prohibit universities from sharing private student data or information with federal agencies, without a valid warrant signed by a judge. “The federal government’s attempts to unconstitutionally pressure universities into repressing free speech and assisting with immigration enforcement not only intrude upon the autonomy of these institutions but also threaten the very essence of learning,“ the letter stated.
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Many community members spoke during the conference in support of the demands in the letter, including speakers from HJC, CAIR, Jewish Voice for Peace Baltimore, CASA de Baltimore and Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS). In an interview with The News-Letter, LBS speaker, Lawrence Grandpre, stated that he was not surprised to see what he perceived as Hopkins not challenging the Trump administration’s use of ICE to “chill free speech,“ given the University’s connection to the military industrial complex and the Johns Hopkins Police Force. “The same political ideologies of control, of fear and domination, that are impacting people overseas are impacting us here in Baltimore…,“ he said. “Being able to have open conversations and people not be afraid of being deported is the right thing.
Multiple speakers also pointed to the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. “This issue is not going to go away anytime soon, so we are hoping with this initial first round that we can impart the urgency of having Governor Moore take constructive action to help protect students,“ she said.
University's Perspective and Challenges
The university has not yet responded to the demands for it to be a “sanctuary campus”. The administration seems like they're in a very sort of panicked place… where they're trying to do anything to placate the Trump administration, or at least, you know, not threaten any of their other funding more than it's already been threatened,” O.N. said. “And the fact that they're willing to prioritize funding over the very tangible threats to their students’ safety is horrifying.”
Hopkins announced last month that it will fire around 200 employees amid federal cuts, including close to $10 million lost in health-related grants.
The university is also under federal investigation for antisemitism complaints and is expected to be visited by the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. A committee at the university decided this year not to divest from Israel.
These factors may be contributing to the university's cautious approach and its reluctance to take a stronger stance against federal immigration enforcement.
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