{"id":134315,"date":"2026-02-15T13:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134315\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:18:14","slug":"columbia-students-faculty-blast-university-for-promoting-border-patrol-recruitment-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134315\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia students, faculty blast university for promoting Border Patrol recruitment event"},"content":{"rendered":"

War erupted at Columbia University when lefty faculty and students<\/a> mobilized to torpedo an ICE recruitment event the school dared to post.<\/p>\n

The meltdown was triggered by an ad this week on the website of Columbia\u2019s School of Professional Studies for a Feb. 18 US Customs and Border Protection virtual career expo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp defend the homeland,\u201d reads the description of the event seeking to recruit for thousands of \u201cmission critical positions,\u201d and promising various Department of Homeland Security agencies in attendance.<\/p>\n

NYPD officers detained Columbia students and professors during an anti-ICE protest earlier this month at the Ivy. Amr Alfiky<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a unique opportunity to learn more about our mission and how you could contribute to it, making a positive impact on yourself, your community and your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash was immediate and furious.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapitulation,\u201d raged journalism professor Helen Benedict on social media. \u201cColumbia is recruiting for ICE. Alumni write in now. Cancel donations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe depravity is bottomless,\u201d fumed journalism professor Nina Berman.<\/p>\n

Students and faculty quickly flooded the school with demands to pull the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event undermines campus trust, makes parts of our community feel targeted or unsafe, and further damages Columbia\u2019s public standing by reinforcing the view that we are complicit in the turn towards authoritarianism,\u201d wrote a faculty coalition. \u201cSilence will be read as consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berman slammed Columbia\u2019s advertising of the CBP recruitment event. vpalestinet\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Ever since its Morningside Heights campus became the epicenter of nationwide pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, Columbia has found itself pulled<\/a> between the demands of its largely left-leaning school community<\/a> and mounting pressure from federal officials over antisemitism concerns.<\/p>\n

The university faced federal civil-rights investigations and a threat from the Trump administration to yank $400 million<\/a> in federal funding, prompting negotiations. It ended up settling for $200 million, and disciplined close to 80 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur university is not just complicit, it is actively facilitating the recruitment of people like Border Patrol Agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection Officer Raymundo Guttierez, the two killers of Alex Pretti,\u201d blasted the university\u2019s Young Democratic Socialist of America chapter.<\/p>\n

Benedict urged alumni to cancel donations to pressure the administration to pull the event. benedict.helen\/instagram<\/p>\n

Columbia quickly caved, pulling the promotional page by the end of the day Feb. 11. The event, however, will go on.<\/p>\n

As universities across the country begin hosting their spring career fairs, many have faced pressure from students over government agencies such as DHS being invited.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the University of Maine removed CBP as an attending employer to its annual career fair after threats from students of boycotting the event, the school paper reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The career fair is seeking to fill thousands of \u201cmissing critical positions\u201d with DHS, according to the description. Getty Images<\/p>\n

And in Missouri, the feds pulled out of the University of Saint Louis\u2019 upcoming job fair after school administrators told them they expected disruptions from students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of that conversation, CBP withdrew and requested a refund,\u201d a university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed.<\/a><\/p>\n

Columbia said the CBP recruitment event ended up on the school\u2019s website through a third-party platform it uses to manage its job board \u2014 and that in response to the backlash it decided it would only promote its own events on the school\u2019s website going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University do not control or select the employers available on the . . . network,\u201d a university spokesperson said. \u201cJob opportunities or career expo events made available on the platform should not be construed as a sponsorship or endorsement by . . . the university.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"War erupted at Columbia University when lefty faculty and students mobilized to torpedo an ICE recruitment event the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19817,2035,2301,9,11,10,57188,14665,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-134315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-columbia-university","9":"tag-ice","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-recruiting","15":"tag-us-customs-and-border-protection","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}