We, the undersigned students, staff, faculty and community members in and around Drexel University petition President Antonio Merlo and the Drexel University Board of Trustees to keep ICE out of our campus by implementing the following demands:

END collaboration with companies aiding the rise of fascism, including OpenAI, Aramark and Allied Universal. Drexel cannot claim to care about its international, undocumented, and students of color while actively collaborating with the companies contracted to attack their human rights.

OpenAI, in allowing the Department of Defense to use their technology for mass surveillance without any scrutiny by the company, has unleashed a never-before-seen force of repression on the people, especially immigrants and people of color. Drexel must immediately rescind or replace its ChatGPT Edu contract, and commit to not working with OpenAI in the future.

Aramark has a long record of abusing its workers and using slave labor from the prison system, and historically has relied on international student labor to serve Drexel’s dining halls, paying them sub-standard wages under terrible working conditions. Recent food safety violations at Urban Eatery seem paltry compared to the sub-standard food served by Aramark in prisons, including ICE detention facilities. Drexel must replace Aramark with an ethical, local caterer, while retaining current on-campus staff.

The ICE deportation machine does not work alone, but rather it relies on private security contractors like Allied Universal to transport detainees to and from ICE detention centers. Despite already having its own police department and the rest of Drexel Public Safety, Drexel funnels our tuition dollars to the same contractor that’s employed by ICE in the name of “security”. Drexel must immediately end its contract with Allied Universal and commit to keeping private security contractors off of our campus.

SUPPORT immigrant students, staff and faculty with the legal, mental health, and financial services they need to be successful. Immigrant students are expected to perform at the same level as their peers while under constant stress and uncertainty about the legality of their families’ and their own existence. Immigrant staff and faculty go through the same while competing for tenure status and promotions. Drexel has the ability and duty to provide them the resources they need.

ICE is a criminal organization and does not act like a legitimate law enforcement agency. They should be treated as such. Drexel must include any sightings of ICE activity in its DrexelALERT system.

While requiring Public Safety to be present to verify outside law enforcements’ proper documentation before being allowed access to students is a step in the right direction, Drexel must ensure legal counsel is present during any encounter between students, staff or faculty and law enforcement.

To ensure our peers do not suffer under these constant attacks outside of our campus, Drexel must provide free, confidential legal consultations for any immigration litigation.

Immigrants face unique mental health challenges; Drexel’s counseling center must provide services specifically catered to immigrant students.

Drexel must fund emergency housing, tuition support, and basic needs assistance for students whose families are impacted by detention or deportation.

END Drexel’s mass surveillance operation on campus, including inviting an ICE contractor, Allied Universal, into our community

A security culture centered on surveillance and collecting mass amounts of information on our students not only fails to protect them, but actively endangers them. Students of color are far too familiar with their communities being surveilled and tracked in the name of security, then having that data be used against them. Drexel, in the past, has also used this data to attack its own students for practicing their right to free speech. Drexel must ensure it does not store identifiable information about at-risk students which can be retrieved by ICE through official or unofficial means.

Part of the surveillance operation on our campus is outsourced to Allied Universal, one of ICE’s largest partners. By allowing them to collect and store data on our community, Drexel is essentially presenting it to ICE on a silver platter. We have seen ICE disregard laws, regulations and contracts in order to continue its manhunt, so no form of agreement can make Allied Universal’s presence on our campus not be dangerous. Drexel must remove Allied Universal from campus immediately.