The International Students Working Group and the Organising Committee met on Monday and Tuesday to discuss next steps in demanding protections for international students in the wake of the recent ICE guidelines, while pressuring Columbia and congressional representatives to fully repeal these guidelines, which we condemn in strongest terms.<\/p>\n
Immediate Next Steps:<\/strong><\/p>\n Calling your federal representatives is the quickest way to have an impact on guideline changes that have been made without considering comments from the public. You can use this script as an email,\u00a0but calling has the most direct impact<\/strong>.<\/p>\n NOTE:<\/u>\u00a0There are two Senators to a state. Call BOTH of them.<\/p>\n \u201cHi. My name is [name] and I\u2019m calling for [lawmaker\u2019s name]. I am a constituent of [district X – whatever your district is]. My zip code is [5-digit zip] and my call can be returned at [phone number].<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m calling on behalf of all the international students in the country impacted by the recent ICE policy issued on July 6th. ICE is threatening to remove all international students whose schools and universities have moved online only due to the coronavirus pandemic. They are forcing international students to risk their health for their immigration status by making them take classes in-person to avoid deportation.<\/em><\/p>\n They have also stated that if a school has to move online only for ANY reason, international students will have to leave the country. This means that if schools shut down due to virus surges, international students will have to leave.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This policy is unjust and inhumane. ICE should ensure that international students are safe while accessing their education. They should make a temporary exemption to their rules to allow international students to continue taking online classes. Congress must do everything in their power to pressure ICE to reverse their decision and adopt a more humane policy. They are not only putting immigrants at risk, they are putting hundreds of thousands of American faculty and students at risk of catching the coronavirus.<\/em><\/p>\n International students should not have to choose between COVID-19 and deportation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2. Pressure Columbia.<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear President Bollinger and Provost Katznelson,<\/p>\n One email is not enough. Without concrete action, your words are meaningless. Columbia University must condemn the new ICE-SEVP guidelines in the strongest terms and fiercely lobby to ensure the full and complete revocation of these heinous and discriminatory guidelines. Additionally, the ISSO must host a town hall\u00a0immediately<\/em>\u00a0for all our international peers. Your failure to adequately meet the concerns of international students has further endangered the lives of visa-holding students and it is imperative that you implement these measures immediately:<\/p>\n 3. Attend an information session<\/strong> <\/a>4. Share your story<\/strong> <\/p>\n Further Actions:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a>1. Collaborate with CPCR.<\/strong> <\/a>2. No Police, no ICE (on campus or elsewhere).<\/strong> <\/a>3. Capacity Building.<\/strong> <\/a>4. Cross-campus Escalation.<\/strong> <\/p>\n Staying in touch:<\/strong><\/p>\n Please feel free to forward this and encourage people facing problems or difficulties to reach out to us to inform us of their concerns. Let\u2019s support each other. We will be sharing questions,\u00a0 concerns and information over the Whatsapp chat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Students Working Group and the Organising Committee met on Monday and Tuesday to discuss next steps in demanding protections for international students in the wake of the recent ICE guidelines, while pressuring Columbia and congressional representatives to fully<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3769,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions\/3769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiagradunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nGWC is organising a Q&A with an immigration lawyer, more information to come soon.<\/p>\n
\nShare your story with your Union by responding to this email. By gathering stories from international students about the impacts of this ICE broadcast, we will be better able to act collectively to support international students. We may ask for your permission to share your stories with your name or anonymously with the state attorney general or in an amicus brief to stop this directive.<\/p>\n
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\nThe Columbia People\u2019s Covid-19 Response is organizing 30 Days of
\nAction, #CutTheCheck. Learn more about the\u00a0action here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CPCR here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nBoth ISSO and Public Safety have publicly stated that they will fully cooperate with ICE and will not obstruct ICE agents on campus who attempt to contact and detain students.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to connect with Defund NYPD and Abolish ICE campaigns on campus and in the city, and plan escalations pressuring Columbia to declare itself a sanctuary campus, cut ties with NYPD and restructure Public Safety.<\/p>\n
\nRespond here<\/a>\u00a0to get more involved in helping to organize and communicate around international student issues in your department. We need someone in every department in every school at Columbia who\u2019s working on these issues.<\/p>\n
\nRespond here<\/a>\u00a0to get more involved in coordinating with other campus unions to escalate demands and take action nationally. Read more about the\u00a0International and Immigrant Student Workers Alliance<\/a>\u00a0and join the\u00a0whatsapp chat here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n