A toolkit for students produced by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and several other groups is encouraging a campaign opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and urging them to “create a crisis” at their universities.
The campaign strategy in the “Schools Drop ICE” toolkit reads, “Create a crisis for university admin through an escalating campaign, around winnable demands, that combines majoritarian outreach and tactics with non-violent direct action.”
Produced by the AAUP in concert with the Young Democratic Socialists of America, the Sunrise Movement and the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University, the goal of the campaign is to “Get hundreds of colleges to drop their contracts with ICE’s key enablers — Enterprise, Target, Hilton, Flock, and ICE Air Carriers. If our schools drop these companies, the companies will feel pressure to drop ICE.”
The website for Schools Drop ICE lists the first one of five “targets” for students to take on as charter flights, naming Eastern, GlobalX and Omni Air.
“Athletic teams charter the same planes that deport immigrants,” the website states. “Why should students ride deportation airlines?”
It also points out that charter flight company Avelo Airlines ended deportation flights on Jan. 27 following widespread protests and opposition.
The second target is Flock cameras, with the website pointing out that “license plate surveillance cameras fed directly to ICE through local police departments.”
The website says that, “Campus police at 60+ schools use Flock cameras, tracking every car on campus without consent.”
The third target is Enterprise car rentals, with the website saying that the company “rents vehicles to ICE agents conducting raids and deportation operations.”
“Universities hold rental contracts with Enterprise. Switching providers costs nothing and sends a clear message,” it says, adding that universities canceling their contracts with Enterprise is “the easiest target to win. Rental contracts can be switched overnight.”
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The fourth target proposed to students is Hilton Hotels, with the website saying that the company “houses ICE agents in hotels near detention centers and during enforcement operations,” adding, “Many campuses have on-site or affiliated Hilton properties. Schools can renegotiate hotel partnerships.”
In January, a formerly Hilton-branded property in Minnesota had its Hilton label removed by the hotel chain after a video surfaced that appeared to show that the location repeatedly denied immigration officers despite Hilton Hotels apologizing and saying that its “properties are open to everyone, and we do not tolerate any form of discrimination.”
The fifth and final target listed on the Schools Drop ICE website is Target Corp., with the campaign saying: “Target stores near every campus. Consumer and contract pressure from the education sector hits their brand.”
“Every regime depends on the cooperation of key institutions,” the website states. “ICE can’t operate without corporations providing flights, vehicles, surveillance tech, and logistics. These are the pillars holding the system up. When enough pillars refuse to cooperate, the whole structure comes down.”
Ethan Rome, the national director of the Emergency Campaign to Support Higher Education, which includes “Schools Drop ICE,” told Fox News Digital: “The goal is to ensure that campuses are safe for all students, faculty, staff, alums, and community members, regardless of their immigration status.”
“The purpose of the toolkit is to help students, faculty, staff, and their allies shine the light on the reckless, irresponsible, and deadly force of ICE during their assaults on communities across the country, and to ask colleges and universities to stop enabling ICE by contracting with corporations that provide transportation, lodging, and other services,” Rome continued.
“We are a non-violent movement with three organizing principles, including a strict prohibition against violence and property damage of any kind, which is prominently displayed on the toolkit,” he added. “Our goal is to create a public relations crisis that colleges and universities can easily resolve by cutting ties with ICE contractors and no longer enabling ICE’s unlawful and violent behavior.”
Sunrise Movement told Fox News Digital: “Students across the country are exercising their constitutional rights to challenge authoritarianism, using peaceful, nonviolent activism to pressure university administrations to end contracts with corporations enabling ICE’s attacks on our communities and the kidnapping of our neighbors.”
The AAUP, Young Democratic Socialists of America, Janice Fine, director of Justice Lab@RU Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University, Higher Education Labor United, the American Federation of Teachers and the Union for Everyone did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Flock Safety said, “This is disappointing, as the group who put this together conducted very little research about Flock. As we’ve publicly shared many times, Flock has no relationship with ICE, or any sub agency of DHS. In fact, all Flock customers 100% own and control their data. So if a school chooses to collaborate with ICE, they do so of their own volition, and Flock has no interest in the matter.”
The spokesperson added, “And it’s sad that this misinformation will leave students and faculty less safe. Because when real tragedies happen, like the Brown University mass murders, we need technology like Flock.”
Eastern, GlobalX, Omni Air, Enterprise and Target did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, immigration agents are facing an 8,000% increase in death threats and a 1,300% increase in assaults since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.
