An Open Letter to President Lee Bollinger, Earth Institute Director Alex Halliday, and NCDP Director Irwin Redlener on Columbia's contract with the Border Patrol

American Society of Pediatrics

Dear President Bollinger, Dr. Halliday, and Dr. Redlener,

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