On April 12, Ithaca College Students for Palestine led an event in front of the Campus Center at Free Speech Rock. The event was titled “ICE Off Campus,” in dedication and support of pro-Palestinian activists who have been threatened with deportation, targeted and detained in the U.S.
About 15 people gathered to listen to the speeches, with President La Jerne Cornish in attendance for part of the event. The day of the protest was also Experience Ithaca, one of the college’s admitted students days.
This protest followed the April 11 trial where a Louisiana judge ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and legal permanent resident of the U.S., can be deported. Locally, Momodou Taal, a Cornell University doctoral student, had his student visa revoked. Taal said in an X post that he left the United States voluntarily, fearing abduction by ICE agents. Both students were involved in pro-Palestinian activism and demonstrations on their respective campuses.
In a memo, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Khalil poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” even though his actions and statements are “otherwise lawful.”
Ithaca College senior Richard Martin, co-vice president of ICSFP, was the first to speak at the event. Martin said the unlawful deportation of student activists has revealed the true character of the U.S. and its administration.
“We have cast aside the mask of liberalism and revealed our true fascist character,” Martin said. “‘How cruel can we get?’ is less and less a question but an answer. The cruelty is the point.”
Junior Marshall Long, co-vice president of ICSFP, said students are being targeted and that it is not uncommon for authoritarian governments to target colleges and universities in the early phases of democratic erosion.
“Critical thinking is not only encouraged [in higher education], but is required to excel,” Long said. “Critical thinking is the death of fascism.”
Long, the club sports senator on the Student Governance Council, said he was bothered by Cornish’s response to the NCAA ruling on transgender athletes, banning athletes assigned male at birth from competing on women’s teams. In SGC’s March 31 meeting, Cornish said the college would follow the NCAA policy changes.
“I ask you, President Cornish, why are we complying with the rulings of a fascist regime?” Long said. “How many trans people need to suffer before we put our foot down? We are consistently ranked as one of the best colleges in the country for LGBTQ+ people, prove it.”
Long said all liberation is connected and that transgender liberation goes along with Palestinian liberation.
Junior Quincey Fireside, president of ICSFP, said via email that Cornish is on the ICSFP mailing list and is invited to all ICSFP events but her attendance was unexpected.
Fireside said at the rally that they came to IC because it felt more committed to student voices than other institutions they had visited, but that they no longer feel this is true.
“I have watched students just like me and just like you ask this school for support,” Fireside said. “Disabled students, queer and trans students, Palestinian students. And over and over … again, I have watched the school that promises to push boundaries, empower students and champion equity on the front page of its website say no.”
First-year student Juliet Mitchell said they are worried for their best friend back home, a South Asian asylee who has been waiting for a green card for ten years. Following ICE raids in the city of Boston, Border Czar Tom Homan told a reporter in a White House press conference that a number of detained immigrants were “collaterals,” without a criminal record.
“I can’t imagine that one day [my friend] would be taken away or murdered and I would have no idea,” Mitchell said. “Everyone in the world is my people. Every child is my child. I refuse to stand by and watch my children get stolen or killed.”
The organizers read submitted works from students and alumni who were either scared for their safety or could not attend the event.
Fireside read a note submitted by a current international student. The student wrote about how they and other international students leave their homes and families in search of education and opportunity and they expect that they will be safe and welcome. They wrote about the shock and upset of being told the school would not publicly support them.
“Ithaca College cannot have it both ways,” Fireside read from the student letter. “You can’t entice us with brochures, photo ops and glossy promises and leave us behind when things get hard. … If you make a promise to keep us safe, keep it.”
Assistant News Editor Eamon Corbo contributed reporting.
