For Immediate Release
January 22, 2026
Statement from United University Professions President Frederick E. Kowal on today's deportation order for SUNY Upstate Medical University employee Yannier “Yan” Vázquez Hildago
“This is awful news and a travesty that is totally unjustified. Yan's deportation order to Ecuador is a complete rejection of American ideals.
“We continue to stand with and in support of Yan, a CSEA member and a union colleague, and his husband Alex Gonzalez, a UUP member at Upstate who was ordered deported to Ecuador by a federal judge last week."
UUP is the nation's largest higher education union, with more than 42,000 academic and professional faculty and retirees. UUP members work at 29 New York state-operated campuses, including SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers in Brooklyn, Long Island and Syracuse. It is an affiliate of NYSUT, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the AFL-CIO.
