Last Tuesday morning, a member of this editorial page board was studying in the quiet of the John D. Rockefeller Library’s basement. Through the west-facing glass wall, what should have been an ordinary morning gave way to an extraordinary sight: masked federal agents detaining a man with his son and escorting him into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicle. To witness such a scene — and from the stacks of Brown’s primary humanities library — was a reminder of the vulnerability faced by many of our undocumented peers here at Brown.
isolated incident, this detainment symbolizes the hostile environment that undocumented members of our community must navigate every day. The sight alone carries a chilling effect — a silent message that Trump’s rash immigration policy may intrude at any moment, leaving many to wonder whether they are safe even going to school.
This should trouble us all. Brown is meant to be a place where students feel able to throw themselves fully into intellectual life — to ask questions, take risks, dissent and debate without fear. But when undocumented and international students must constantly calculate the risks of visibility, their participation in that vital intellectual exchange is compromised. An ICE vehicle parked outside the Rock is not simply a spectacle — it is an obstacle to unfettered academic freedom…