Solidarity with Student Workers of Columbia - UAW 2710

CGSU-UE stands in solidarity with Student Workers of Columbia (UAW Local 2710) in their fight for contract protections for non-citizen workers amid unlawful abductions of students and workers by ICE. Most recently, on February 26th, ICE agents illegally arrested a Columbia undergraduate student in a Columbia-owned residence. This abduction comes on the heels of the unlawful detentions of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia postdoctoral worker, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia graduate worker as a result of their activism for the liberation of the Palestinian people. This latest attack makes clear the imperative for our employers to resist ICE’s authoritarian actions and guarantee safety to all community members on our campuses, regardless of immigration status. 

Like Columbia, Cornell has been eagerly complicit with the far-right anti-immigrant agenda. In Spring 2024, prior to Trump’s election, the Cornell administration specifically targeted international graduate workers involved in pro-Palestine protests, almost leading to visa revocations before mass action on campus stopped the revocations. Cornell did nothing to protect graduate workers Momodou Taal and Amandla Thomas-Johnson when the federal government revoked their visas in Spring 2025 due to their pro-Palestine speech, forcing them to flee the country. Despite the Trump administration’s clear record of efforts to dismantle higher education and cut DEI programs across the country, in November 2025 the Cornell administration still signed a deal that grants the Trump administration broad discretion over university governance and our day-to-day lives, putting marginalized people at risk. Universities must do more to fight back against the Trump agenda and protect their non-citizen workers from ICE’s illegal detention and deportation program.

International graduate workers form a majority of the research and teaching community at Cornell. Despite this, Cornell has done nothing for its international workers since the beginning of the second Trump administration's crackdown on immigrant rights.There is no university fund for legal resources or emergency support that non-citizen workers may require. There have been no efforts to publicly denounce or fight back against ICE and DHS’s visa revocations, detentions, and deportations of non-citizens. 

In the face of federal oppression and Cornell’s institutional complicity, CGSU-UE has been at the forefront of the fight to advance immigrant rights. Our collective bargaining agreement prevents Cornell from sharing information with ICE without a signed judicial warrant, prevents the university from consenting to ICE’s entry into any building or housing, and prohibits CUPD from arresting individuals on the basis of their immigration status.

Unions from all industries are leading the way on protecting non-citizen workers and organizing against ICE. In Minneapolis and Portland, unions, including our UE siblings Local 1105 (University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union) and Local 1010 (New Seasons Labor Union), have been at the vanguard of these efforts. Unions have come together to spearhead calls for ICE to leave our communities; raised funds for vulnerable community members; organized nationwide economic blackouts and boycotts of businesses with ties to ICE.

We stand in solidarity with UAW Local 2710 (Student Workers of Columbia), UAW 4811 (Academic Workers at UC), and many of our fellow graduate worker unions who share our fight for immigrant worker rights against their university administrations and the federal administration. As we face escalating attacks against immigrants across the country, we call upon all employers, including Cornell, to do everything in their power to meaningfully protect international workers.