A crowd of more than 50 people gathered on Centennial Common Dec. 3 to advocate for more comprehensive support of Northeastern’s international student community and call upon the university to formally bar U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, from entering campus.
The demonstration was held by Northeastern’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, or YDSA, and featured a number of student speakers, despite the 34 degrees Fahrenheit weather and a darkened sky.
“It’s really simple. All we’re asking is for Northeastern to make a formal statement about not allowing ICE on campus, basically,” said Gabriel Besecker, a third-year economics and psychology combined major and the communications director for NEU YDSA. “Under the extent of the law, obviously. If they don’t have a judicial warrant, don’t let them in.”
The university did not respond to requests for comment from The Huntington News.
At 5:19 p.m., the group began marching toward West Village Quad, chanting “Whose campus? Our campus!” and “No fear! No hate! No ICE in our state!” From there, attendees moved through campus and up Leon Street before looping down Forsyth Street and back toward Centennial Common.
Around five Northeastern University Police Department officers followed behind the march on foot. Two additional officers on bikes blocked incoming traffic on Leon Street and Forsyth Street while the protesters crossed.
“This fight is not just a fight for our international students here at Northeastern. It is a fight for labor rights across the United States. Labor rights for those who make this country what it is,” Simon Braun, a second-year environmental and sustainability sciences and chemistry combined major and the parliamentarian for NEU YDSA, said to the crowd.
Multiple speakers at the demonstration noted that with a student body made up of 38% international students, Northeastern has the second-highest number of international students of any university in the U.S. after New York University.
“These people bring not only a unique cultural perspective, but they also bring important value solely because they are people and part of our community. We here at the Democratic Socialists of America seek to build a humanist movement, a movement that brings dignity in life — not because they bring economic value to our country, but because they bring a human value to the communities in which they reside,” said Braun in his speech.
Leo Ansari, a second-year political science major and member of NEU YDSA, recalled an email campaign he conducted with the group earlier in the year that demanded increased protections for international students, including calling upon Northeastern to declare its many locations sanctuary campuses and provide a legal fund for international students. Many he talked to while canvassing, he said, were reluctant to sign their names.
“If you don’t think what the Trump administration is doing is actively oppressing students, you’re totally wrong,” Ansari said in an interview with The News. “[International students] won’t even mobilize on something that they genuinely believe in out of fear of deportation.”
One of the first executive orders Trump signed following his inauguration Jan. 20, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” vowed to “faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens.” There has since been an increased presence of ICE agents across various cities in the U.S. with large immigrant populations.
In early November, nine people were detained in an immigration raid on a car wash in Allston. The president of Boston University College Republicans wrote in a Nov. 7 post on X, “I’ve been calling ICE for months on end. This week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals.” The post sparked protests at Boston University and outrage from college Democrat groups across Massachusetts.
“The general goal of this rally was just to apply general pressure to Northeastern administration. They’ve consistently not responded to anything that we’ve done so far,” said Lokesh, a third-year computer science and neuroscience combined major and the chair of NEU YDSA, who only gave their first name due to privacy concerns. Lokesh noted the university’s lack of response to a letter campaign and an invitation to a town hall from NEU YSDA.
The town hall, hosted on Oct. 28, addressed issues surrounding immigration in the U.S. Northeastern community members discussed how the university can create a safer campus for international students, but no Northeastern administrators were present, which NEU YDSA views as a refusal to meet its demands, Lokesh said.
“I think they believe that conceding to us is a worse situation than conceding to Trump, but that’s not true,” Lokesh said. “If they concede to Trump, Trump is going to ask for more concessions … and they’ll ask for more and more and more, until Northeastern has nothing left. We’re asking Northeastern to stop conceding now and fight for the students that they have currently.”
At 5:28 p.m., the group arrived back at Centennial chanting “The people! United! Will never be defeated!” A few more speakers emphasized similar points to the earlier speeches, sharing their own families’ immigration stories and emphasizing the power of community.
“Ever since my dad was a kid, he has known Northeastern as a school that immigrants would come to. Members of my family came to America because they were going to Northeastern,” Ansari said in his speech.
At 5:44 p.m., the rally concluded with more chants and calls to action.
“If you think that you’re white, or you’re cis and straight, or a man, that you have some kind of protection under fascism, you don’t. They will come for you, too,” Lokesh said. “And if you don’t stand now, there will be no one left to stand with you.”
