Colleges and universities across the nation have been seeing increased pushback as students, faculty and community members speak out against the inclusion of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at institutionally-affiliated job fairs, especially following increased immigration enforcement under Donald Trump’s presidency. Student opposition has taken a variety of forms, from in-person demonstrations to online surveys, and these movements have achieved varying levels of success in preventing CBP presence on campus.
At Seattle University, CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility declined an invitation from Seattle U’s Crime and Justice Research for its career. The Seattle U administration did not publicly share a response to the situation before or after the invitation was declined, nor did it indicate whether it was tied to pushback, but the invitation received overwhelmingly negative criticism from the student body.
Similar to Seattle U, other universities have had CBP withdraw without public disinvitation from the administration, including Western Michigan University, University of Maine, Southern Nevada College and Villanova University.
Seattle U’s administration emphasized that they support faculty’s right to include whichever perspectives in educational materials that they deem fit.
“Seattle University is not the organizer of the career fair in question. But, consistent with the Faculty Handbook, the university fully supports faculty and faculty-led centers, such as the Crime and Justice Research Center, in their exercise of their academic freedom and in the use of their professional judgment in shaping educational programming, such as the career fair,” Eduardo Penalver, President of Seattle U, wrote in an email to the Spectator. “Doing so does not constitute endorsement of an organization or office within an organization who faculty might invite to campus.”
Other universities, however, offered a different vision of the university’s role in managing student discontentment. Saint Louis University, another of the 28 American Jesuit universities, took a more involved role. Their administration spoke with CBP about student perspectives and expectations for the event, including student protests, which caused CBP to withdraw from the fair. The university emphasized that they did not uninvite CBP, but engaged in a dialogue with them that led CBP to decide not to attend. Clayton Berry, vice president of communications at Saint Louis University, clarified the administration’s actions in an Inside Higher Ed article.
“We listened and considered the varied perspectives and needs of our community. We shared relevant considerations with our contact at CBP and discussed that we would expect disruptions at the event. As a result of that conversation, CBP withdrew and requested a refund. We continue to connect students with CBP and other employers through our online portal,” Berry said.
In the past, school administrations have gone even further. In 2019, San Jose City College, a Hispanic-Serving Institution, told the company organizing their job fair to uninvite CBP after multiple student groups voiced concerns.
“For many in this population, the presence of US Customs and Border Protection representatives on campus – regardless of their intentions or reasons for being there – can cause undue distress and concern. This is something we strive to prevent whenever possible for this already vulnerable population,” President Elizabeth Pratt wrote in an email to students, later adding that she was “confident that we made the right choice by not including them in the job fair.”
Even at schools where CBP did attend, they faced student protests and demonstrations on-site. CBP’s presence at an Ohio State University Job fair earlier this year drew over 50 protesters, three of whom were arrested. At Utah Valley University, students in the Civil Disobedience Club staged a sit-in outside the career fair. Brigham Young University in Utah saw about 200 protesters at one of its job fairs, with students and community members holding signs with messages like “No CBP at BYU” and “BYU, do better. Jesus would be disappointed.”
The various responses that university administrators have given to student complaints about CBP presence at job fairs, from silence to impartiality to removing CBP themselves, reflect different philosophies regarding the university’s role in listening to its student body. Regardless of whether any one school is dealing with the CBP situation in the ‘correct’ way, the character and variance of responses highlight that universities have a say in how much they choose to care about student concerns.
