St. John\u2019s University, facing an uproar from faculty, students and alumni, has suspended a short-lived partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to train students for careers in homeland security.<\/p>\n
The decision to pause the initiative, the Institute for Border Security and Intelligence Studies, was announced in a Jan. 29 email from Law School Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum to the university\u2019s law school faculty and confirmed by St. John\u2019s spokesperson Simon G. Moller in a statement to Gothamist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter constructive, mission-focused conversations with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the decision was made to suspend, in advance of the one-year renewal, the academic partnership by mutual agreement,\u201d said Moller, who is the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Catholic university in Queens.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, did not immediately respond to questions about the suspension.<\/p>\n
The move follows outcry from St. John\u2019s students and faculty after the partnership was announced<\/a> last June. The suspension also comes amid a nationwide backlash over federal immigration enforcement, including the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis last month.<\/p>\n The university found itself caught in a larger reckoning by Catholic Church leaders who have been increasingly critical of the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation effort, including the outsize toll on non-white parishioners and other community members.<\/p>\n Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has criticized<\/a> the administration\u2019s enforcement initiative and \u201cinhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n The suspension of the St. John’s program was applauded by members of \u201cNo CBP at SJU,\u201d a collective of faculty who opposed the partnership.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe think it’s the right thing,\u201d said Raj Chetty, a professor of English and member of the collective who had signed a petition opposing the partnership.<\/p>\n He added that the partnership \u201cvery clearly flies in the face of the university’s Catholic Mission, Vincentian mission and focus on justice and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Jefferson Exum\u2019s email was the first word of St. John\u2019s about-face for most in the school community.<\/p>\n \u201cI write to share that the University has suspended its partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection,\u201d she wrote in the email, which was reviewed by Gothamist. \u201cThe University reached this decision in recent weeks after concluding that the partnership is currently incompatible with the mission of St. John\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Jefferson Exum declined to comment.<\/p>\n In its announcement<\/a> last year, St. John\u2019s said the planned institute would nurture \u201cthe next generation of homeland security professionals.” The university signed a memorandum of understanding with CBP officials, including Frank Russo, a St. John\u2019s alum and the director of field operations at the agency\u2019s New York field office.<\/p>\n \u201cThe knowledge you will bring from St. John\u2019s will be invaluable to us,\u201d he said, according to a release provided<\/a> at the time. \u201cProtecting our homeland is an incredible challenge, and we cannot do that without your contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n The university has since removed the announcement from its website.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, outrage over enforcement activities by Department of Homeland Security officials has only grown.<\/p>\n St. John’s Latin American Law Students Association<\/a> has spoken out about the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as well as the loss of \u201cmultiple\u201d other lives during enforcement actions.<\/p>\n The group, in a statement cosigned by the school\u2019s Immigration Law Society and the campus chapters of the National Lawyers Guild and American Constitution Society, said “this moment demands more than silence or neutrality.”<\/p>\n The decision to suspend the program also comes amid increasing outcry by Catholic leaders, including the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, Bishop Robert Brennan, over immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, too many of our brothers and sisters live under the shadow of fear,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in an essay coauthored with two other bishops in a Jesuit publication in December. \u201cIn particular, right now in our country, those who are Black, Brown, Asian and Native American live in fear of being profiled, detained or deported simply because of the color of their skin. This fear is not abstract. It is part of daily life for many in our parishes, our schools and our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n