American Society of Pediatrics |
We, the undersigned members of the Columbia community, are disturbed to learn that the University has a contract with the Customs and Border Protection, the arm of the US Dept. of Homeland Security that is on the front line of this Administration’s policy of “zero tolerance” and detention of migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border.
The contract is with the Earth Institute’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness to develop for the CBP “a standardized, but basic health-screening tool to help determine whether a child might need urgent medical attention” and other medical protocols.
We beg to differ with the rationale for this contract, that “the federal agencies responsible for apprehending and assuming custody of people crossing the borders illegally are beyond overwhelmed” and that “much-maligned (often unfairly) Border Patrol agents, with essentially no medical training whatsoever, are doing a thankless job.” (ibid)
The crisis at the border and in CBP detention facilities is entirely of this administration’s making. It is the desired outcome of a deliberate policy to inflict bodily and psychic harm on asylum seekers, adults and children alike, under the guise of “deterrence.” CBP continues to separate children and infants from their parents. It confiscates migrants’ clothing, toothbrushes, and medicines when they are placed in detention. Migrants have inadequate access to water and food. The camps are kept at 55 degrees and lights are kept on 24 hours a day. Migrants must sleep on concrete floors; many cannot even do this, as the cells are so crowded as to be standing-room only. According to some observers, the horrific conditions in these facilities meet the legal definition of torture.
Some may argue that it is possible to do a small good in the context of a large evil. Perhaps contributing professional services to the CBP to alleviate suffering is an appropriate response to this crisis. We do not believe it is possible to provide such services under the aegis of CBP because the administration in general, and CBP in particular, has created this crisis in the first place. Well-intentioned actions clash with the agency’s mandate to implement an inhumane policy and its toxic culture. Worse, such actions may legitimate the CBP, which has no interest in attending to the medical needs of migrants. Legal advocates (including Columbia law professor Elora Mukherjee) have gone to court to gain access for independent doctors and a public health expert at the CBP facilities along the border. Notably, John Sandler, the acting director of the CBP, who reportedly reached out to Columbia to develop a screening tool, resigned on June 25 amidst outcry over conditions in detention camps. DHS's inspector general report (July 2) corroborate findings of independent monitors.
There are many ways for us to positively assist migrants in this crisis. Columbia faculty and students have provided independent translation, legal, and medical services at the border and elsewhere for migrants and asylum seekers. Columbia Law School's immigration clinic and Medical School's asylum clinic are two institutional venues that have responded to the current crisis. But we believe the University should have nothing to do with Customs and Border Patrol. Contracting with CBP is at odds with Columbia’s ethics, which led the University to divest from private prison and detention contractors. Regardless of good intentions, the CBP contract is a stain on our conscience and reputation as an institution that upholds human rights and ethical practices. We cannot work for concentration camps. We demand that Columbia cancel its contract with the CBP.
Sincerely,
1 |
Mae Ngai |
Faculty | History |
2 |
Nara Milanich |
Faculty | History, Barnard |
3 |
Shamus Khan |
Faculty | Chair, Sociology |
4 |
Dhananjay Jagannathan |
Faculty | Department of Philosophy |
5 |
Anupama Rao |
Faculty | History, Barnard College and MESAAS (CU) |
6 |
Michael Harris |
Faculty | Mathematics |
7 |
Karen Van Dyck |
Faculty | Classics Department |
8 |
Susan Bernofsky |
Faculty | School of the Arts |
9 |
Michael Thaddeus |
Faculty | Department of Mathematics |
10 |
Nico Baumbach |
Faculty | Associate Professor, Film/School of Arts |
11 |
Jane M Spinak |
Faculty | Columbia Law School |
12 |
Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi |
Faculty | Barnard College Department of Architecture |
13 |
Naor Ben-Yehoyada |
Faculty | Anthropology |
14 |
Shelly Silver |
Faculty | Visual Arts, School of the Arts |
15 |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature | |
16 |
Natasha Lightfoot |
Faculty | History |
17 |
Elsa Stamatopoulou |
Faculty | Institute for the Study of Human Rights |
18 |
Francine Cournos, MD |
Faculty | Mailman School of Public Health |
19 |
Marianne Hirsch |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature |
20 |
Gauri Viswanathan |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature |
21 |
Jessica Collins |
Faculty | Philosophy |
22 |
J.C. Salyer |
Faculty | Department of Anthropology & Director of the Human Rights Program, Barnard |
23 |
Herb Sloan |
Faculty | Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Barnard |
24 |
Brent Hayes Edwards |
Faculty | Department of English and Comparative Literature |
25 |
Todd Gitlin |
Faculty | Journalism and Sociology |
26 |
Gil Anidjar |
Faculty | Religion / MESAAS |
27 |
Faculty | Dept. of Germanic Languages, ICLS | |
28 |
Courtney Bender |
Faculty | Department of Religion |
29 |
Katharina Pistor |
Faculty | Law School |
30 |
Jack Halberstam |
Faculty | English and IRWGS |
32 |
Joseph Slaughter |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literatures, Institute for the Study of Human Rights |
33 |
Faculty | Barnard College | |
34 |
Kristina Milnor |
Faculty | Department of Classics, Barnard College |
35 |
Rosalind Morris |
Faculty | Department of Anthropology |
36 |
Vanessa Agard-Jones |
Faculty | Anthropology |
37 |
Reinhold Martin |
Faculty | Architecture |
38 |
Rhiannon Stephens |
Faculty | History, A&S |
39 |
Sheldon Pollock |
Faculty | MESAAS |
40 |
Lila Abu-Lughod |
Faculty | Anthropology and IRWGS, Columbia |
41 |
James Schamus |
Faculty | School of the Arts |
42 |
Janet Jakobsen |
Faculty | Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College |
43 |
Deborah Paredez |
Faculty | School of the Arts Writing Program |
44 |
Claudia Breger |
Faculty | Germanic Lang and Lit |
45 |
Richard Pena |
Faculty | School of the Arts/Film |
47 |
Susan Riemer Sacks |
Faculty | Psychology Dept., Barnard College |
48 |
Eric Foner |
Faculty | History (emeritus) |
49 |
Sharon Schwartz |
Faculty | MSPH |
50 |
Nick Bartlett |
Faculty | Assistant Professor, AMEC, Barnard College |
51 |
Martha Howell |
Faculty | Department of History |
52 |
Merlin Chowkwanyun |
Faculty | Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health |
54 |
Robert G. O'Meally |
Faculty | English Department, African American Studies Department, Center for Jazz Studies |
55 |
Nadia Abu El-Haj |
Faculty | Anthropology |
56 |
Najam Haider |
Faculty | Barnard College |
57 |
Christy Thornton |
Alumni | BC 02, SIPA 03, Assistant Professor Johns Hopkins |
58 |
Paige West |
Faculty | Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for Study of Social Difference |
59 |
Ralph Ghoche |
Faculty | Department of Architecture, Barnard College |
60 |
Jean Howard |
Faculty | Arts and Sciences |
61 |
Branden W Joseph |
Faculty | Art HIstory |
62 |
Molly Murray |
Faculty | Department of English and Comparative Literature |
63 |
Manisha Sinha |
Alumni | University of Connecticut |
64 |
Helen Weng, PhD |
Alumni | CC '04 |
65 |
Sybill Chen |
Student | History |
66 |
Angela Aidala |
Faculty | SMS/ MSPH |
67 |
Andrew Liu |
Alumni | GSAS, History |
68 |
Julian Brave NoiseCat |
Alumni | Columbia College |
69 |
Audra Simpson |
Faculty | Department of Anthropology |
70 |
Lydia H. Liu |
Faculty | East Asian Languages & Cultures/Institute for Comparative Literature & Society |
71 |
Marie Myung-Ok Lee |
Faculty | School of the Arts + Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity (CSER) |
72 |
Carly Goodman, Ph.D. |
Alumni | |
73 |
Armando Lozano |
Alumni | CC, LAW |
74 |
Patricia Dailey |
Faculty | English and Comp Lit |
75 |
Daniel Morales |
Alumni | History Department |
76 |
Tovah Klein, PhD |
Faculty | Director, Toddler Center, Barnard College |
77 |
John C Stoner |
Alumni | History, University of Pittsburgh |
78 |
Glenn Adler |
Alumni | GSAS/Political Science |
79 |
Ellie Hisama |
Faculty | Department of Music |
80 |
Timothy Patrick McCarthy |
Alumni | PhD, History, IRAAS |
81 |
Anne Goodwin |
Non-Columbia affiliate | Affordable Power and Justice |
82 |
Katrine Jensen |
Staff | Council for European Studies |
83 |
Steven Sherman |
Alumni | Columbia College '86 |
84 |
Farina Mir |
Alumni | GSAS 2002 |
85 |
Alumni | School of international and public affairs |
|
86 |
Michael Bernhard |
Alumni | PhD 1988, Ehrlich Professor of Political Science University of Florida |
87 |
Michael Pollak |
Alumni | GSAS Sociology |
88 |
Anna Danziger Halperin |
Alumni | GSAS '18 |
89 |
Melissa Morris |
Alumni | GSAS |
90 |
Pablo Piccato |
Faculty | History |
91 |
Michelle Philpo-Denney |
Non-Columbia affiliate | Horrified U.S. Citizen |
92 |
Deborah Eisenberg |
Faculty | School of the Arts |
93 |
Margaret E. Keck |
Alumni | GSAS Political Science |
94 |
Ian Shin |
Alumni | GSAS '16 |
95 |
leah dworkin |
Alumni | school of the arts |
96 |
Lisa Brunet, Ph.D. |
Alumni | GSAS |
97 |
Premilla Nadasen |
Faculty | History |
98 |
Alexander Alberro |
Faculty | Art History |
99 |
Kurt Mettenheim |
Alumni | Political Science - SIPA |
100 |
Emmanuelle Saada |
Faculty | Professor of French & Carnoy Family Program Chair of Contemporary Civilization |
101 |
Elizabeth Hutchinson |
Faculty | Art History and Archaeology |
102 |
Tom Kalin |
Faculty | Professor, Columbia University School of the Arts, Film |
103 |
Deborah Valenze |
Faculty | Barnard College |
104 |
Judith Byfield |
Alumni | GSAS (History) 1993 |
105 |
Penny Von Eschen |
Alumni | William R. Kennan, Jr. Professor of American Studies /History, University of Virginia |
106 |
An Kint |
Alumni | GSAS |
107 |
Monika Nalepa |
Faculty | Political Science, The University of Chicago |
108 |
Ana M Ochoa |
Faculty | Department of Music |
109 |
Rebecca Kobrin |
Faculty | History Department |
110 |
Graciela Montaldo |
Faculty | LAIC, Columbia |
111 |
Illan Gonen |
Faculty | MESAAS |
112 |
Brinkley Messick |
Faculty | Anthropology |
113 |
D. Max Moerman |
Faculty | Professor & Chair, Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard; CC '86 |
114 |
Cailin Hong |
Student | History, GSAS |
115 |
Charry Karamanoukian |
Faculty | MESAAS |
116 |
Lien-Hang Nguyen |
Faculty | History |
117 |
Thai Jones |
Staff | RBML |
118 |
Alumni | GSAS Political Science | |
119 |
Nan A Rothschild |
Faculty | Anthropology |
120 |
Steve Askin |
Alumni | Columbia Business School, MBA 1993 |
121 |
Andor Skotnes |
Faculty | Former Acting and Assistant Director, Columbia Oral History Research Office |
122 |
Mark Von Hagen |
Faculty | History |
124 |
Mahmood Mamdani |
Faculty | Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology |
125 |
Alice gorton |
Student | History, GSAS |
126 |
Stephanie McCurry |
Faculty | R Gordon Hoxie Professor of History |
127 |
Sahar Bostock |
Student | History, GSAS |
128 |
Jane Leftwich Curry |
Alumni | Department of Political Science |
129 |
Celia E. Naylor |
Faculty | History and Africana Studies, Barnard College |
130 |
Alice Nash |
Alumni | History Ph.D.1997 |
131 |
Joseph Howley |
Faculty | Department of Classics |
132 |
Mariana Katz |
Student | PhD Student, History Department |
133 |
J.T. Roane |
Alumni | GSAS |
134 |
Bailey yellen |
Student | GSAS |
135 |
Jennifer Wenzel |
Faculty | Dept. of English & Comparative Literature; MESAAS |
136 |
Mary Gordon |
Faculty | Barnard College |
137 |
Darcy Krasne |
Faculty | Classics Department |
138 |
Genesis Garfio |
Alumni | CC17 |
139 |
Alumni | Mailman School of Public Health | |
140 |
Jeffrey Fagan |
Faculty | Law School |
141 |
Jennifer Lee |
Faculty | Sociology |
142 |
Andrew Lipman |
Faculty | History, Barnard College |
143 |
Cora Cervantes |
Alumni | GS 16’ |
144 |
Kendall Thomas |
Faculty | Law School |
145 |
Carol Mason |
Faculty | Zuckerman Institute |
146 |
Claudio Lomnitz |
Faculty | Anthropology |
147 |
Rebecca Vaadia |
Student | Neurobiology and Behavior program |
148 |
Matt Sandler |
Staff | Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race |
149 |
Karina Pantoja |
Alumni | Columbia College |
150 |
Sayantani DasGupta |
Faculty | Graduate Program in Narrative Medicine |
151 |
Lucia Saldivar |
Alumni | Barnard College, Class of 2017 |
152 |
Juan Gonzalez |
Alumni | CC |
153 |
Denise Frutos |
Alumni | Psychology |
154 |
Christia Mercer |
Faculty | Philosophy |
155 |
Lorenzo Bradford |
Alumni | Columbia College ‘17 |
156 |
Silvia Bernardi |
Faculty | Psychiatry |
157 |
Karl Jacoby |
Faculty | History Department |
158 |
Daniela Rodriguez |
Alumni | |
159 |
Alejandro P Desince |
Alumni | CC ‘18 |
160 |
Elizabeth Castelli |
Faculty | Religion, Barnard College |
161 |
Romeo Guzman |
Alumni | History, PhD |
162 |
Amanda Hardin |
Student | History |
163 |
Elizabeth Heintges |
Student | Dept. of Classics |
164 |
Eder Gaona-Macedo |
Alumni | SIPA |
165 |
Eliza Zingesser |
Faculty | French |
166 |
Jennifer Scribner |
Student | Neurobiology & Behavior |
167 |
Jane E Turk |
Alumni | Communications, GSAS |
168 |
Dr. Benjamin Weiss |
Alumni | Columbia College '05 |
169 |
Maria Victoria Murillo |
Faculty | GSAS & SIPA |
170 |
Faculty | Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College |
|
171 |
Rebecca E Karl |
Alumni | Professor, History Department, NYU |
172 |
Matthew Haugen |
Staff | Libraries |
173 |
Hong Deng Gao |
Student | History, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences |
174 |
Jenni Ingram |
Alumni | School of social work |
176 |
Jonathan Beller |
Faculty | Eng. & WGSS, Barnard College |
177 |
Evan Jewell |
Alumni | GSAS, Classical Studies |
178 |
Rebecca Arteaga |
Alumni | Columbia College |
179 |
Gabriel Solis |
Student | History PhD program |
180 |
Nabiha Nuruzzaman |
Alumni | Mailman School of Public Health |
181 |
Georgia A. Mickey |
Alumni | Business 1997, Arts & Sciences 2004 |
182 |
Harlan D. Chambers |
Student | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, EALAC |
183 |
Nataly Shahaf |
Student | EALAC |
184 |
Shao-Hung Teng |
Alumni | Film and Media Studies MA |
185 |
Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê |
Student | GSAS History (PhD) |
186 |
Nancy Kricorian |
Alumni | School of the Arts |
187 |
Ansley T. Erickson |
Faculty | Teachers College and Department of History |
188 |
Lisa Tiersten |
Faculty | Barnard College, History Department |
189 |
Cooper Lynn |
Alumni | Institute of Comparative Literature |
190 |
Dorothea von Mücke |
Faculty | Gebhard Professor of German Language & Literature, Dept of Germanic Languages |
191 |
Daniel Friedrich |
Faculty | Teachers College, Dept. Of Curriculum and Teaching |
192 |
Rozena Raja |
Student | Teachers College |
193 |
Dinesh Rathakrishnan |
Alumni | Mailman School of Public Health |
194 |
Jennifer Lena |
Faculty | Teachers College |
195 |
Yasemin Akcaguner |
Student | GSAS History |
196 |
Sophie Schweiger |
Student | Department of Germanic Languages |
197 |
Helen Zhao |
Student | Philosophy, GSAS |
198 |
Rhonesha Blaché |
Student | Teachers College |
199 |
Zainab Bahrani |
Faculty | Art History and Archaeology |
200 |
Karen Seeley |
Faculty | Anthropology |
201 |
Carla Stockton |
Alumni | G.S. and School of the Arts |
202 |
Adam Kosto |
Faculty | History |
203 |
howard greenberg |
Alumni | school of the arts |
204 |
Vera A Nazarian |
Alumni | School of Arts and Science |
205 |
Robert Fuller |
Student | Teachers College |
206 |
Jordan Corson |
Student | Teachers College |
207 |
Jessica Reyna |
Student | Barnard College ‘16; Columbia School of Social Work ‘22 |
208 |
Silja Weber |
Faculty | Germanic Languages |
209 |
Lynne Guillot |
Alumni | School of the Arts |
210 |
Neil Ziolkowski |
Student | Germanic Languages |
211 |
Marc Van De Mieroop |
Faculty | History department |
212 |
Shezza Abboushi Dallal |
Alumni | Barnard College |
213 |
Rober Jack Gross |
Alumni | Institute for Comparative Literature and Society |
214 |
Inderpal Grewal |
Non-Columbia affiliate | Yale University |
215 |
Ann Douglas |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature Department |
216 |
Nick Juravich |
Alumni | Columbia GSAS (History) |
217 |
Wendy Chavkin |
Faculty | Mailman |
218 |
Mary Beth Terry |
Faculty | Epidemiology |
219 |
Rick Moody |
Alumni | School of the Arts |
220 |
Frank Guridy |
Faculty | History & African American African Diaspora Studies |
221 |
Faculty | Teachers College | |
222 |
Jacqueline Siapno |
Non-Columbia affiliate | Independent Researcher and Former Acting First Lady, East Timor (Timor Leste) |
223 |
Rosana Koundakjian |
Alumni | GSAS ‘90 |
224 |
Casey N. Blake |
Faculty | History and American Studies |
225 |
Dialika Sall |
Student | GSAS |
226 |
Vahe Habeshian |
Alumni | GS |
227 |
Rebecca Jordan-Young |
Faculty | WGSS, Barnard College |
228 |
Donna Medel |
Alumni | Columbia College |
229 |
Karen Ramirez |
Alumni | Columbia College |
230 |
Robert Tiburzi |
Alumni | College |
231 |
Bruce Robbins |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature |
232 |
Ira Katznelson |
Faculty | Political Science and History |
233 |
María Fernanda Martínez |
Alumni | Columbia College |
234 |
Ayten Gundogdu |
Faculty | Political Science, Barnard College |
235 |
Victoria de Grazia |
Faculty | History Department |
236 |
Gregory Mann |
Faculty | History |
237 |
E. Mara Green |
Faculty | Anthropology |
238 |
Macayla Donegan |
Student | Neuroscience |
239 |
Mabel O. Wilson |
Faculty | GSAPP/GSAS |
240 |
Meredith Gamer |
Faculty | Department of Art History and Archaeology |
241 |
Faculty | MESAAS | |
242 |
Christopher Hoffman |
Student | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences |
243 |
Jessica Bulman-Pozen |
Faculty | Law School |
244 |
Kadambari Baxi |
Faculty | Architecture, Barnard College |
245 |
Samantha Van Doran |
Student | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences |
246 |
Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez |
Student | History |
247 |
Bette Gordon |
Faculty | School of the Arts/Film |
248 |
Faculty | Psychology, Barnard College | |
249 |
Jessica Collins |
Faculty | Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy |
250 |
Gwendolyn Wright |
Faculty | Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation |
251 |
Madeleine Zelin |
Faculty | EALAC and History |
252 |
Mary Nolan |
Alumni | GSAS History |
253 |
Alan Stewart |
Faculty | English and Comparative Literature |
254 |
Kimi Traube |
Alumni | CC, SOA |
255 |
Kim Fader |
Staff | Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health |
256 |
Sonam Singh |
Faculty | Barnard College |
257 |
Non-Columbia affiliate | Ball State University | |
258 |
Michael Perles |
Alumni | GSAPP, 2016 |
259 |
Mohamed Kouta |
Student | GSAS |
260 |
Will Owen |
Student | GSAS |
261 |
Áine McLaughlin |
Non-Columbia affiliate | University of Maryland student |
262 |
Jonathan Slater |
Student | GSAS |
263 |
Stefan Andriopoulos |
Faculty | Germanic Languages |
264 |
Alexander Alberro |
Faculty | Art History |
265 |
Chloe Vaughn |
Student | Germanic Languages (GSAS) |
266 |
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak |
Faculty | University Professor, Columbia University |
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