UC-AFT Anti-Racism Committee Statement on Termination of Student Visas
as endorsed by UC-AFT Council April 19
The UCAFT Anti-Racism Committee supports the statements of our union and other related unions that condemn the Trump Administration’s termination of international student visas, its violation of constitutional law, and its abrogation of human rights under a growing shadow of fear, extortion, direct threat, and arbitrary acts of state violence. We demand transparency from our campus administrations and the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), and a commitment to refuse to collaborate with an authoritarian administration.
Thus far the Trump Administration has offered no reason for its policies or actions. Its conduct is antithetical to everything the University of California stands for, and inimical to the professional and ethical standards we uphold as scholars and educators. One early report implies that many of the students with terminated visas are Muslim/non-white students. The targeted removal of statehood and personhood from migrants, especially men of Venezuelan origin, who have been transferred to a concentration camp without communication or any means of exit, is clearly being done to demonstrate the regime’s disregard for any law or morality; to demonstrate and relish its impunity, as governmental and civil institutions fail to respond. The hallmarks of this administration are textbook corruption and domination: lack of due process; the targeting of criticism or political speech as “disloyalty;” and the attempt to censor any language associated with equality, justice, or research designed to elucidate and support the general good. These cases are not just chilling precedent; they are escalating acts toward total seizure of power with an apocalyptic bent.
If our university administrations are worried about losing federal funds if they don’t bow to the tyrannical Trump administration, they should look at Columbia, which caved in fear of losing federal funding and then didn’t get it back. Instead, we should follow Harvard’s example. Given world events, what would make any leader think that all it has to do is comply with Trump to safeguard its federal funding or amicable relationship? Funds will be withheld, regardless!
We demand that the UC campuses and UCOP refuse compliance with undemocratic and unconstitutional orders from the Trump administration. We demand that UC use its resources to protect students from fear of deportation. That includes a refusal to share information with federal immigration authorities, and a refusal to cooperate with DHS and its newly deputized branches of enforcement agents on campus. Further, we as Lecturers (many of whose jobs are vulnerable) and Librarians call on UC to provide clarification and supportive instructions on how our civil rights under the Constitution will be protected on our campuses. We demand clarification from the UC on its principles of academic freedom to pursue inquiry, debate, and implications of conditions, policies, and opinions.
We oppose the looming federal withholding of funds as an excuse to cut budgets for education. Budget contraction must not be allowed to harm our members, staff, and students, and must not be imposed on the most vulnerable and least represented groups among us. Instead, UC needs to become a more fair and sustainable institution that prioritizes education and service. The money is there and needs to be invested in the UC community instead of hedge funds like Blackrock, which only exacerbates the housing crisis and especially displaces communities of color. We oppose displacements from here to Palestine and throughout the world!
