Northeastern University is facing backlash from students, alumni and community members over its $7.8 million research contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.
On June 30, thousands marched on Boston Common to protest the separation of families crossing the border from Mexico into the United States, a policy the Trump administration says it has reversed by executive order, and to call for the abolition of ICE .
Student organizers are planning a protest at the university on Wednesday after 2,000 people signed an online petition asking the university to cut ties with the service.
Treasury research professor Glenn Pierce told the News Service that his work analyzes data on “dual-use technologies” exported from the United States. Technologies are products that could be used for common tasks such as machine repair, but can function as components in the construction of a weapon. Pierce examines cases where this technology is exported to countries or companies that the US government deems questionable.
“The contract is with ICE because they are the agency responsible for collecting data on exported goods,” Pierce said. “We are discussing something that has no overlap [the protestors’] worries”.
In a public statement, Northeastern defended the contract and argued that faculty have the academic freedom to conduct this type of research.
“Our commitment to academic freedom goes beyond protecting what professors say; it also means allowing faculty members to freely pursue research funding in their areas of expertise,” the statement said. “Efforts to limit which federal agencies a faculty member can approach for research funding are antithetical to academic freedom.”
According to the details of the contract, the study was to continue until 2021, and to date $2.7 million has been committed. Now, just two years into the investigation, it will come to an end, according to Pierce and Northeastern. Neither the university nor ICE has explained the early end of the study.
Evan Greer, a local activist who started the petition to push for an end to the contract, said Wednesday's protest echoes the voices of many students.
“The protest is an escalation, echoing the demands of an open letter signed by nearly 2,000 Northeastern students, alumni, faculty, staff and members of the nearby community,” Greer said in a statement. “We are calling on the university to immediately cancel its contract amid widespread reports of human rights abuses carried out by the organization.”
Dr. Mary Annas, an English professor at Northeastern who also teaches refugees at Boston Medical Center, added: “I believe that any relationship with ICE, however tenuous, after their involvement in separating families at the border, amounts to collusion. with their human rights violated”.
The protest will begin at noon on the university's campus, in the Krentzman Quadrangle. About 200 are expected to attend.
