Wednesday, July 10, 2019

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

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