'I don’t feel safe': Student orgs raise concerns over ASU collaboration with ICE after employee detained

Students and staff are on high alert across Arizona State University (ASU) campuses following the detainment of a school employee at the ASU Tempe campus on Sept. 16. 

According to a statement published on the ASU website on Sept. 18, the detainment, which was caught on camera and posted to social media, took place after an ASU police officer arranged a meeting with the unidentified ASU employee. At that meeting, a plainclothes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigator later handcuffed the employee before relocating him for questioning somewhere “off-campus.”

According to an additional statement provided to CALÓ News from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) acting Special Agent-in-charge Ray Rede said there was an anonymous complaint of a threat made towards President Donald Trump. Amid the heightened security efforts prior to the memorial service of assassinated Turning Point USA CEO and far-right, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk — which took place last weekend at State Farm Stadium in Glendale — HSI identified and detained a suspect they claimed to be “a nonimmigrant alien,” an unofficial term for foreign nationals who are admitted into the country on a temporary status, which typically includes students, tourists, workers and investors.

In coordination with the U.S. Secret Service, investigators interviewed the ASU employee who was later released after the threat allegations were deemed noncredible. 

However, the effects of seeing countless ICE raids, nearly 60,000 detainments and a growing number of disappearances taking place across the country as the Trump administration carries out mass deportation efforts, has started to weigh on students who find it troubling that a public research university whose charter states that it is “measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes” is allowing its police department to coordinate meetings between immigrant employees and federal immigration agents.

“It's been weighing pretty heavily on our E-Board members. We go into our meetings usually a lot more drained, a lot more down than we have been in the past, because there is so much happening. There is so much news coming out every single day, and this specific occurrence on our campus was incredibly close to home,” said Marlee Valenzuela, political science student and president of Planned Parenthood Generation (PPGen) Action at ASU. “We do have several Hispanic members in our group. In our club, in general, we have people who are descendants of immigrants... So, you know, seeing this was personal for a lot of us, and it made us feel like our school wasn't on our side. It made us feel like we are directly being attacked, almost.” 

PPGen’s chapter at ASU is an advocacy group on campus for accessible healthcare, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity for all marginalized individuals. In their released statement following the incident on ASU’s Tempe campus, the organization brought up several concerns regarding recent threats made against HBCUs across the country, the suspected lynching of a Black student at Delta University and the increase in ICE presence in the Valley, which has made its way onto their campus.

However, Valenzuela pointed out, this isn’t the first time there’s been an attack on immigrant and BIPOC students at ASU. 

“Last semester, there was a group called the College Republicans United who decided to do a tabling on campus where anyone could report students who are undocumented to ICE, and our university didn't do anything about that. They were basically, like, ‘as long as it wasn't an actual threat of violence, then it was okay,’” Valenzuela said. “That already stirred a lot of fear within students, and then this happens. So, it just kind of feels like ASU doesn't really care about us. So, I'd like to encourage the community to build, to put pressure on our school, because I don't feel safe there.”

While ASU Media Relations maintains that the school, and subsequently ASUPD, had “no role in detaining the employee,” HSI stated that this investigation was of high priority and that the organization, along with their “law enforcement partners quickly collaborated to identify and address the presumed threat – it’s a shared responsibility as law enforcement officials.” 

Despite the statements, the social media uproar in response to the video of the arrest — posted on Instagram by the Party of Liberation and Socialism’s (PSL) Phoenix branch — has rippled across all ASU’s campuses. 

In response to the incident, a posted press release made by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) at ASU called for the university and its resident Michael Crow to denounce the incident that put students and faculty at risk, to end all cooperation with ICE/DHS and to implement policies to prevent any future targeting or harm done to community members, similar to resolutions made by Valley school districts to create school “safe zones.”  

“ASU must protect the safety and dignity of its staff and students — not partner with agencies that terrorize them,” NLGASU’s press release stated.

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.