Columns

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Pres. Pollack Must Denounce ICE Restrictions on Student Visas

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To the Editor:

The recent announcement from the Department of Homeland Security adding restrictions to Non-immigrant F-1 student visas is a xenophobic, bigoted and inhumane political stunt designed to further nationalist rhetoric. The decision to restrict student visas is the latest attack on the international community under the guise of national economic security or public health. These include but are not limited to the 2018 Muslim travel ban, various attempts to overturn Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policies and recent rollbacks on foreign worker visas. Denying students the right to educational opportunities based on immigration status is in direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This discrimination based on national origin endangers not only student achievement, mental health and physical health amidst a global pandemic, but is also detrimental to the longevity of Cornell’s educational philosophy and Ithaca’s economy.

City

Ithacans Rally in Solidarity for Marginalized Groups

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Carolina Osorio Gil, director of Cultura Ithaca organized the “Stop Criminalizing Our People” rally to protest the recent U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement presence in Ithaca.

DACA

EDITORIAL | ICE Eschews Accountability

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Tuesday’s reported arrest of a man in downtown Ithaca by U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement is the latest example of the federal overreach and lack of accountability characteristic to the Trump administration. Under President Trump, arrests by ICE have increased 47 percent, and arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal records have increased a staggering 179 percent. ICE continues to show a blatant disregard for human dignity, arresting parents dropping their kids off at school, students going to high school prom and patients emerging from operating rooms. On Jan. 16, ICE arrested a Michigan doctor and lawful permanent resident, and have initiated deportation proceedings against him based on two misdemeanor charges from nearly three decades ago, when the man was a teenager. How does that make us safer?