Campus Labor Coalition Demands University Cut Ties with ICE-Linked Companies in Fiery May Day Protest

The Campus Labor Coalition (CLC) took to the streets on May Day to confront the University of Illinois over its entanglements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its failure to protect international students and workers. Gathering at the iconic Alma Mater statue, demonstrators marched to the Swanlund Administration Building, where Chancellor Charles Lee Isbell Jr. and senior administrators notably refused to receive their petition in person.

The petition, bearing more than 850 signatures, calls on the University to cut ties with companies contracting with or collaborating with ICE, naming GlobalX Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Flock Safety as examples. “The University is unwilling to take affirmative, proactive steps to support international students,” said Xenia Osterhout, a member of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO). “Their financial dealings are drastically out of step with their purported values.”

At Swanlund, only Robb Craddock, Executive Director for Labor & Employee Relations, and Assistant Vice Chancellor Kristin McMurray appeared to receive the demands. They promised to deliver the petition to Chancellor Isbell but declined to engage directly with the crowd, which responded with chants demanding accountability and expletives aimed at Craddock. The University’s choice to lock the building’s doors and avoid senior leadership underscored a pattern of administrative evasion.

Speakers from GEO, the Campus Faculty Association, the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition, and various student socialist groups emphasized the urgent need for the University to take a clear anti-ICE stance. Frank Klein, representing Young Democratic Socialists of America, condemned the hostile environment fostered by figures like former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski, who campaigned on capping international student enrollment. “This is so dangerous and disgusting,” Klein said, highlighting how international students and workers are being targeted while the University remains silent.

Jadzia Taborski, president of Students for Socialism, called out the University for investing tuition money in companies complicit in deportation and human rights abuses. “We want our tuition to go towards helping students, not towards deporting our neighbors and investing in genocidal companies,” she declared.

The protest followed an April rally where the CLC first introduced its petition and condemned the University’s affiliations with ICE-linked corporations. Organizers vowed to maintain pressure on University officials, especially as GEO navigates stalled contract negotiations. Osterhout expressed confidence in the movement’s momentum, noting strong community support for the petition’s demands.

As the rally dispersed, two flares burned defiantly at the entrance of Swanlund, a stark symbol of resistance against institutional complicity with ICE’s authoritarian reach. The University’s refusal to confront these demands head-on reveals a troubling disconnect between its stated values and its actions — a gap the Campus Labor Coalition is determined to close.