Columnist Niheer Patel argues that the University must reevaluate its place in society in the midst of student deportations.
Credit: Sanjana JuvvadiThe terror is here. Mahmoud Khalil. Rumeysa Öztürk. Ranjani Srinivasan. Unidentified goons are snatching students off the streets, shipping a legal resident and expectant father 1,000 miles away, making a social media post or an op-ed grounds for deportation. All this is accompanied by the impending suspension of due process. You’re a citizen? You have no chance to prove it. Not anymore. If the funding cuts, incursions into academic freedom, and anti-transgender demonization weren’t enough, as of Monday, the terror is here, on Penn’s campus.
When I learned that the announcement of this week’s visa revocations were unrelated to activism, the relief I felt was short-lived. They haven’t come for the students brave enough to publicly oppose the genocide in Gaza (at Penn) (yet). Even still, three members of our community have been taken from us as part of a political crusade with stated interests in the dismantling of diversity, dissolution of international cooperation, and death of free speech. A grand welcome by the oligarchs empowered by what has become a surveillance state.
Less than 80 days in, we all know this is just the beginning. Donald Trump’s term is only 5% of the way through. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already revoked 300 student visas in connection with pro-Palestinian protests. They will not stop with the students deemed the “most deportable” for the coincidence of their birth outside our borders, the students who hold opinions that may clash with those of the American empire. They will not stop with the students who share my skin tone, who share my political beliefs, or who share a last name from my continent.
When the time comes — and the question is clearly when, and not if — the students who will be targeted are the same ones who were arrested when Penn called the cops, were subjected to Penn’s internal disciplinary action, and were doxxed with Penn Trustee approval. Penn must acknowledge that it has handed students over to Trump’s deportation machine on a silver platter.
More insidiously, Trump and Elon Musk are both alumni of this University. They are examples of how the education here fails, producing demagogues and oligarchs. Penn is responsible for their creation. This should trouble you.
We must take steps to prevent our future graduates from mimicking Musk and Trump’s corrupt career trajectories and personalities. The actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the past weeks and in the upcoming years aren’t happening to us. They’re our fault. Our culpability is existentially debilitating, but it’s also an opportunity to fundamentally reassess. If we let students get deported, the entire value of what we are doing here is irreparably called into question.
We cannot be educated when we have to cower behind beliefs given to us by a regime. Now is not the time to retreat further into defense of a failing status quo that produced the conditions of today. A reinforcement of neoliberalism is not the answer when it’s exactly was what got us into this mess. The assault on higher education is an opportunity for every stakeholder to decide who they are, what they stand for, and why they fight. This institution needs to make radical changes to become a positive force in the world.
These steps may betray the inclination to believe that education is apolitical. Education is, will always be, and always has been political. The partisan leaning of the University is a product of engagement with the important questions of the world. Learning to critically think is fundamentally in conflict with neoliberalism, conservatism, fascism, and other ideologies that reproduce the oppression of racial capitalism, patriarchy, and their compatriots. The Republican Party is acutely aware of this. The longevity of this regime is dependent on an ostracized academy and inadequate K-12 schooling.
Going forward, Penn must put a political project of liberation at the center of its pedagogical mission. We must change our principles and our practice. We need to stop creating oligarchs and those who serve them. Unless we’re okay with having created the harbingers of new-age fascism, of course.
To the Trump administration, take your hands off of my University. This place belongs to us: the students, staff, faculty, and administrators who believe in the transformative power of education. You cannot terrify us into submission.
To Penn’s administration, do not let the hands at our throats slowly asphyxiate the knowledge that remains here. Protect your students from deportation. If you are unwilling to entertain breaking the law to stand for what is right (slavery was legal once), then refuse to comply with Trump’s illegal and legally dubious actions. In the immediate short term, Penn must declare and enforce sanctuary. When faculty and students reach out, Penn needs to listen.
To Penn’s students, refuse to stop breathing. If our hands are tied, we still have our feet. When ICE is on campus, drop what you’re doing and walk out. Flood Locust. You want campus community? Prove it. Stand up for your fellow students. Are the rights of your peers more important than landing that consulting/finance/big tech job? This is not a rhetorical question. I implore you to pause and answer this to yourself.
These next four (plus) years will be a test of radicalism, resilience, and resistance. I may be catastrophizing here, but I’d rather be the boy who cried wolf than yesterday’s dinner. To those lost in this moment, I invite you to cry with me. All I ask in return is that you fight with me too.
NIHEER PATEL is a College sophomore from Atlanta studying history and English. His email is niheerp@sas.upenn.edu.
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