For Immediate Release

April 1, 2025

United University Professions, America’s largest higher education union, stands in direct opposition to the Trump administration’s continued targeting of noncitizens in academia, all of whom were legally residing in the U.S. at the time they were picked up by ICE agents, in many cases under murky circumstances.

According to several mainstream news outlets, as many as 300 international students have been detained by ICE over pro-Palestinian campus protests or actions. They include Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University and a member of Service Employees International Union Local 509.

Since February, at least two academics have been detained by ICE, including SEIU Local 925 member Lewelyn Dixon, a University of Washington lab technician. One academic has been deported and another has fled the country to avoid detention after ICE came to her home searching for her.

What follows is a statement by United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal:

“UUP members, like the majority of Americans, support the removal and deportation of dangerous, violent nondocumented immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and who pose a threat to society and the security of our democracy.

“However, there are constitutional and legal processes that must be followed, and they include the right to due process—which, according to the Constitution, extends to anyone on U.S. soil, including undocumented immigrants and even those who illegally entered our country. The Fifth and Fourteenth amendments spell out those due process rights.

“The Trump administration has not just ignored these constitutional and legal processes, he has flouted and trampled over them. The president has allowed and encouraged ICE agents—who do their work without identification on their clothing or vehicles—to literally spirit their suspects off the streets and into detention camps thousands of miles of away from where they were apprehended.

“As Americans and as unionists, we demand that the rule of law be followed. We demand that due process be given to Americans and everyone in America. We demand that the Trump administration admit that the Constitution is the nation’s fundamental law and the supreme law of the land—and as such, must be followed by all, including the president.”