Students Across America Furious over Immigration Agencies Recruiting on College Campuses
Two civilians participating in an anti-ICE protest holding signs to show their displeasure. Photo by Colin Lloyd via Unsplash
With violence towards immigrants dominating headlines across America, students at universities nationwide are protesting against the participation of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) in school-run career fairs.
While ICE was established in 2003, it has recently faced tremendous backlash for its mistreatment and violence towards immigrants. In 2025, the first year under the new Trump administration, it was reported that 32 people died while being detained by ICE, making it the deadliest year for people in ICE custody.
The numbers often vary due to delays or failures from the agencies to produce full reports.
Despite ICE getting most of the backlash in the media, CBP is the larger agency and is more commonly present at college career fairs. It was also CBP officers who shot and killed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti.
Students at schools such as Samford University, Brigham Young University and the University of Maryland have all seen students, faculty and alumni protest in several ways, including marching, setting up tables at the fairs and publicly calling upon their schools to disinvite the agencies.
“They are allowed to be there (college career fairs), but I don’t like it,” said John Addis ‘27. “They are a federal body, and they have the jurisdiction to be there, but I just don’t see the value in them attending (college career fairs).”
Universities are put in a very tricky situation, with several schools such as George Washington University Law School, Towson University, and the University of Maryland facing severe backlash from their student bodies over allowing ICE to participate in the career fairs..
George Washington University Law School, which, despite a petition signed by over 1,200 students and organizations, refused to disinvite ICE from their career fair.
ICE would eventually voluntarily remove itself from the fair, but students remained upset with the lack of support from the university.
Protests escalated even further at The Ohio State University, where three people, including two students, were arrested during a protest.
“Three individuals were arrested for criminal trespass, following multiple warnings, after disrupting a career fair event inside the Ohio Union and violating university space standards,” said University Spokesperson Dan Hedman in an email sent as a press statement to journalists covering the story.
The protest consisted of around 60 attendees, despite being informed by Ohio State’s Campus Activism and Event Engagement team that chanting was not permitted inside the building.
Despite the public scrutiny, according to the Department of Homeland Security, CBP has seen a 42.5% increase in average monthly officer hires and an 84% increase in Border Patrol agent hires since President Donald Trump took office.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering competitive financial incentives, including up to $60,000 for new Border Patrol agents and CBP officers,” according to a December 2025 CBP press release. “Current Border Patrol agents will be eligible to receive up to $50,000 in retention incentives.”