Statement on ICE Presence Reported and Visas Revoked

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 5th 2025.

At approximately 4:00 PM on Friday, April 4, reports were circulated to the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU) Local Executive Board along with many of you of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence on campus. The Santa Clara Rapid Response Network could not confirm any ICE activity at this time.

However, we are learning that four Stanford University students and two recent graduates have had their student visas revoked by federal authorities. Attacks against the international scholar community are not a potentiality, but imminent reality. Students and graduate workers across the country have had their visas revoked, been expelled, and been abducted for the “crimes” of expressing their constitutional rights of free speech, press, and assembly.

We recognize the terror, sorrow, and anger our community may be feeling. No Stanford student, graduate worker, instructor, staff, or community member should be made to fear for their life or livelihood, nor should we have to fear whether or not our coworkers will be abducted unknowingly by ICE.

At their core, these tactics are a shock and awe tactic to try to silence us, aiming to paralyze any momentum into inaction. As graduate student workers and members of the broader labor movement, we must take bold action to oppose the attacks on our constitutional rights to free speech and protest as well as the slashes to our funding that stifle academic freedom and progress.

Sustained, mass mobilization efforts are needed to support those threatened by ICE, and moreover to safeguard our community at-large. This is a moment for graduate student workers to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with our international graduate workers. Unions are our first line of defense to safeguard our rights as workers – join us!

Below are updated resources from the 3/29/25 SGWU email around ICE and international students:

Statement on Recent Executive Orders

Released Feb. 14, 2025.

On February 5th, our National Union, UE, released a statement that included the following: “We will take whatever action necessary to defend our members, especially those most vulnerable to attacks in this period. We will fight for academic freedom and the right to produce research that advances humanity, irrespective of whether the products of that research pose inconvenient truths to those in power.”

SGWU unequivocally agrees. We remain committed to protecting our rights, upholding our hard-fought contract, and supporting each other despite efforts to dismantle our power as workers and individuals. We write today to advocate for all our members’ rights, freedoms, and well-being and call on Stanford to do the same.

Over the past three weeks, the Trump administration has made numerous attacks on members of our community. They have attempted to cancel the visas of international students who have engaged in their protected First Amendment right to protest and to deport undocumented workers. They have attempted to freeze federal funding for research grants, limit NIH funding, and eliminate all research and programs that promote DEI. And they are trying to erase transgender identities, including by using Title IX to justify discrimination.

SGWU stands with all students and workers who are affected by these executive orders. For those concerned about their safety and well-being, we wanted to make it clear that there are protections under our contract and existing law:

  • Stanford must support all graduate workers, regardless of their immigration status. Our international graduate worker article states “the University shall not release information regarding Graduate Worker immigration status to the Department of Homeland Security unless legally required to do so.” Despite the current executive order, the immigration status of individual higher education students remains protected under The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
  • Our five-year funding letter reiterates Stanford’s commitment to SGWU to provide at least 12-month 5-year funding to all enrolled PhD students in good academic standing, regardless of the state of research grants and federal funding. Graduate workers’ compensation rates are also set in the Compensation Article in our contract through 2027, meaning salaries cannot be reduced because of a loss or cut in federal funding. Moreover, Stanford clarified as a result of union negotiations that no program, department, or faculty member may require a doctoral student to obtain external funding or to self-fund as a condition of admission, entry to, or continuation in the degree program. The Appointment Security article of the contract also ensures funding cannot be cut off during an appointment.
  • Our contract contains strong nondiscrimination protections on the basis of race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression, in addition to other identities, and broad non-identity-based protections against power abuse in the workplace. These protections and avenues to real recourse through our grievance procedure remain in force independent of the Title IX process. Additionally, Stanford reiterated in a letter that the services provided through the Weiland Health Initiative, which include care specific to the LGBTQ community, are funded through endowed funds. This means these funds cannot be used for any other purposes and therefore will be maintained despite the current political environment.

SGWU reminds Stanford that they must uphold these obligations at a minimum. However, they can do more. We call on the University to urgently and seriously advocate for the protection of all its graduate students and the community at large, by (1) reiterating its commitment to continued funding for all graduate workers, (2) affirm, as it did in 2017, its support for all students, without “regard to their immigration status, religion, nationality, ethnicity or other characteristics”, and (3) confirm its existing obligation to not cooperate with immigration authorities unless explicitly required by law.

SGWU, as a union for all graduate workers, is committed to supporting each other through this challenging time. As a rank-and-file union, it is our members who keep each other safe and ensure Stanford upholds all the crucial protections we won in the contract. Interested in being part of this critical work? Consider becoming a Union Steward. Stewards will ensure all graduate workers are afforded the full protection of our contract. SGWU is also starting a working group to create opportunities for mutual aid and social infrastructure to support Stanford graduate workers across campus. If you’re interested in being a Steward or joining this working group, email contact@sgwu.us.

In solidarity,
SGWU Interim Grievance Committee