DENVER – The Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) withdrew from participating in a University of Colorado Boulder and University of Denver Government and Public Interest Career Fair on Tuesday following protests and opposition from hundreds of students over OPLA’s links to immigration legal proceedings.
OPLAoversees legal services for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and also represents the Department of Homeland Security during immigration removals or deportations.
“I thought it was just wildly inappropriate, given the increased anti-immigrant sentiment and violence across the country, so we kind of got together immediately and talked about writing a petition,” said DU first-year law student Makena Lambert. “Actually the day that one of our DU NLG (National Lawyers Guild) members started drafting the actual petition was the day that the ICE raids began in Denver and Aurora. So it was feeling all very timely.”
In addition to collecting 1,500 petitionsignatures, Lambert said student groups also planned protests over OPLA’s inclusion in the career fair.
“The petition actually got 500 signatures in four hours, and then 1,500 signatures in 24 hours. So at 1,500 signatures, we submitted it... physically in person at the DU law school, and then we also emailed it to the DU deans and the CU deans. And [we] heard back from CU administrators within an hour, telling us that ICE had withdrawn their participation in the event. We actually have yet to hear back from DU,” Lambert said.
Hannah Recht, a second-year DU law student, said she is disappointed with both DU and CU Boulder.
“It’s disappointing to see our universities who always talk about valuing the public interest and social change and creating lawyers who are agents of social change invite an institution that has been instilling so much terror in our communities, and disappointing both because of the students that could put out risk,” Recht said. “I think it's inappropriate for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, and it was specifically their Office of Legal Counsel. I think it's inappropriate for them to be at our public interest career fair because at this moment, ICE is an agency that's being utilized and weaponized to instill terror in our communities, to our immigrant neighbors, to our undocumented neighbors, and to people who might be mistaken for immigrant and undocumented neighbors.”
Lambert and Recht said they hope to hear from DU administrators soon.
“From DU, we are in the process of, we would like to ask them for a meeting, an in-person meeting to discuss next steps and have the productive discourse that we had hoped to have originally. I think for me, an important next step would be ensuring that they are committed to not doing this again next year,” Lambert said.
In a statement, a DU spokesperson told Denver7, "The University of Denver is aware that the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) decided to withdraw from this week’s career fair. DU students attending the fair were provided in advance with an updated list of participating employers."
Denver7 has also been in contact with ICE regarding the career fair. A spokesperson is looking into which program or agency may have been participating in the event and the circumstances surrounding the announced withdrawal.
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