Pitt students gathered to protest Pitt’s business with three logistics companies that have come under public scrutiny for their alleged partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday afternoon.
Three student advocacy groups at Pitt — Students for International Labor Solidarity, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Sumud Coalition — collaborated to organize the event. A crowd of approximately 40 students and onlookers marched from the Cathedral of Learning to Schenley Plaza, carrying signs that read “Pitt, cut the contracts” and “Drop Enterprise, Global X, Hilton” — the three companies with alleged ties to ICE.
Vehicle rental company Enterprise, based in St. Louis, Missouri, faced calls from residents to stop leasing its fleet to ICE after agents carried out multiple fatal shootings in Minneapolis early this year. Hotel operator Hilton similarly made headlines after removing a Minneapolis Hampton Inn from its portfolio after the hotel independently canceled reservations for agents. Airline Global X is a known partner of ICE, frequently carrying out deportation flights for the agency. A Venezuelan man flown to an El Salvadorian prison on a Global X flight in March 2025 recently filed civil rights violation claims against the airline.
Pitt’s official resource website for employee travel bookings lists Enterprise as a “contracted and preferred car rental compan[y],” and Hilton is one of many major hotel chains the university has access to. Global X is not listed as a preferred airline, but Pitt’s contracted travel management supplier Anthony Travel sometimes partners with the airline for NCAA-related travel.
A spokesperson for Pitt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Xavier Ramirez, a senior molecular biology major and one of SILS’ organizing members, spoke to the crowd at Schenley Plaza, directly calling on administrators to take action against ICE’s operations. He led the crowd through chants of “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.” and “F— ICE.”
Friday’s protest was a continuation of SILS’ “Drop ICE” campaign, which began in April. Organizers have repeatedly delivered letters to Chancellor Joan Gabel demanding that Pitt’s ties to the three companies be severed.
“What’s happening is awful. It’s more than horrific,” another SILS member, junior Michael Richardson, said in an interview with The Pitt News. “There are people being killed, there are people being beaten, there are people being wrongfully detained. And no one deserves to go through that. It doesn’t matter if they came here illegally.”