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‘Any kind of contract with ICE at this moment in history is irresponsible and immoral,’ protesters say   

Student and community activists have launched protests against Northeastern University, demanding the private Boston institution sever ties with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and in particular a multi-million dollar contract with the federal agency that works to help stop the illegal export of weapon technologies.

The protesters, who call the research unethical, held a protest in mid-July. Demonstrators chanted “ICE has got to go” as they marched through the campus, according to the Associated Press.

The protest came on the heels of an online petition calling for the contract to be severed. As of Tuesday evening, about 2,100 people had signed it.

“About $2.7 million has been obligated in the college’s ICE contract for ‘exploratory methods mapping (EMM) process services for big data sets.’ The agreement has a potential award amount of roughly $7.8 million if all options are exercised and goes through August 2021,” MONEY reports.

“Renata Nyul, Northeastern’s vice president of communications, tells MONEY the university has a contract for faculty ‘to look at trade data related to illegal export of weapon technologies.’ She added that ‘Northeastern is a global institution with a global community of students, faculty and staff.’”

But protesters claim the research is being used for nefarious ends.

“The university claims the program is related to weapons trafficking, but these data analysis techniques could just as easily be used to expand mass surveillance of immigrants and communities of color. Having any kind of contract with ICE at this moment in history is irresponsible and immoral,” the petition states.

A Northeastern University spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.

“Every university has a responsibility to determine what constitutes ethical research. At this moment in history, when families are being torn apart and children are being locked in cages, collaborating with an agency like ICE is clearly unethical,” Lester Smiley, a Northeastern University School of Law student who helped organize the protest, said in a news release. “The administration is trying to spin this to the press and sweep it under the rug, but that’s not going to work.”

Mary Annas, an English professor at Northeastern who also teaches refugees at Boston Medical Center, said in the news release “I believe that any connection to ICE, however tenuous, after their participation in separating families at the border, amounts to collusion with their human rights violations.”

But in an interview with AP, Glenn Pierce, a scientist at the university who applied for the grant in 2016, made it clear that his work focuses directly on technology that could be used to fight the war on terror, not on illegal immigration.

And Nyul said the angst against ICE “should never prohibit students from seeking opportunities to further their education.”

Johns Hopkins University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Vermont’s state colleges also got ICE grants this year.

CORRECTION: The wrong name of a campus spokesman used in the original has been removed. 

VIDEO: Rowdy students protest border patrol agents at campus job fair

IMAGE: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock

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