(RNS) — A partnership between St. John’s University in Queens, New York, and United States Customs and Border Protection to inaugurate an immigration enforcement training center has sparked tensions among the university community.
A group of faculty, students and alumni argued in a May 16 petition that the collaboration threatens “the university’s Catholic and Vincentian mission.” As of Thursday (May 29), it has 901 signers, including 93 faculty across six schools and university libraries. Many signatories remained anonymous.
The project, announced on May 6, will establish the Institute for Border Security and Intelligence studies at the university’s Collins College of Professional Studies in coordination with CBP’s New York Field Office. The center will train homeland security professionals and focus on “intelligence gathering and threats to the homeland.”
The petition, delivered on Wednesday (May 28) to the university’s president, the Rev. Brian J. Shanley, and Simon G. Møller, senior vice president for academic affairs, argues the partnership poses “grave ethical, legal and cultural concerns — especially in light of St. John’s University’s Catholic and Vincentian mission to serve poor, immigrant and socially marginalized people.”
It argues the CBP has a record of “harmful and unlawful enforcement practices” against immigrants and racially profiled communities and that the presence of CBP agents on campus could endanger the community.
“Refugees and migrants are our colleagues, classmates, neighbors, friends and family members. THEY are US, not abstractions or objects for careless academic study,” reads the petition.
The petition lists recent high- …