The Georgetown University Law Center will not remove offices of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from a Jan. 23 public service career fair after a student petition condemned their presence.
The Law Center’s Public Sector Recruitment Program (PSRP), which it hosts jointly with The George Washington University Law School, annually hosts over 250 public service-focused employers for virtual appointments with students. Over 1,100 students, faculty and community members signed a petition calling on the Law Center to exclude DHS’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, the department’s largest legal branch, and ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, which prosecutes and deports human rights violators.
The petitioners cited ICE’s recent enforcement tactics in Minneapolis, including the fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good by an ICE agent Jan. 7 and violence toward demonstrators during ongoing protests against ICE’s presence. Student leaders met with Georgetown Law interim Dean Joshua Teitelbaum on Wednesday to discuss their requests.
A Law Center spokesperson said the career fair includes over 20 “immigration advocacy or representation” nonprofit organizations alongside federal government employers.
“The federal government has sent representatives to this fair since it began, and this year nearly 50 offices from across from the federal government have registered to attend,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Our student body is a diverse community with differing career aspirations. If students wish to interview or meet with these offices, we won’t deny them the opportunity to do so.”
Belle Allmendinger (LAW ’27), who helped write the petition and attended the meeting with Teitelbaum, said the Law Center’s decision disregards the motivations of many working in public service legal careers.
“It goes against all of our values and why we want to go into these careers: to protect the public, to fight for the rights of individuals that are targeted by such organizations, to uphold the rule of law, to challenge the law when it’s wrong,” Allmendinger told The Hoya.
“It’s saying, ‘Here, we’re teaching you all of these things, but we’re not going to stand by those things,’” Allmendinger added.
Allmendinger said they think keeping ICE and DHS in the career fair for the sake of diversity is disingenuous.
“We can have a diversity of opinions,” Allmendinger said. “If people want to talk to ICE, sure, but to invite ICE and to allow ICE to use this program that is dedicated to public interest, to allow them to come and to use these channels to find students that want to help them in their abhorrent mission, that is not a difference of opinions.”
Before the Law Center’s response, Annie Gillani (LAW ʼ28) — who helped write the petition as a representative for the Law Center’s Abolition Advocacy Project (AAP), which advocates for the abolition of police and prisons — said ICE’s presence at the PSRP disrespects Georgetown’s values.
“Our initial reaction was just, we do not want ICE on our campus, whether virtually or in-person because it harms our students,” Gillani told The Hoya on Tuesday. “It sends a message that it’s okay for Georgetown students to be working at agencies that are ripping families apart, killing people and destroying our immigrant communities.”
Following the decision, student advocates began contacting some employers to encourage them to withdraw from the PSRP.
Allmendinger said they are glad that some employers have agreed to exit the career fair.
“It makes me so happy,” Allmendinger said. “It makes me even more excited to talk to these organizations, to interview with these organizations.”
The Law Center spokesperson confirmed that some organizations decided not to participate in the PSRP and said the Law Center is “helping them connect with interested students separately.”
Allmendinger said the support from the Georgetown community has reaffirmed the students’ mission.
“It’s vindicating everything that we’re standing for,” Allmendinger said. “It’s showing us that we’re fighting for our fellow students; we’re fighting for the rule of law.”
