PHOTO COURTESY OF 5NEWSONLINE.COM

Protestors gather in Rogers, Arkansas, to protest ICE raids in January 2025

Does ICE  melt under heat? Or will it stay afloat if you keep it cool enough? 

ICE., or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a hot button topic that is floating in and out of many conversations around the country. We know how the politicians in Washington feel, but how do students at Arkansas State University feel?I put out a survey on different social media platforms that allowed students to voice their opinions about ICE. and the results were intriguing. 

Of 168 responses, 70.5% of students, or 117 students, do not support ICE, compared to only 25.9%, or 43 students, supporting ICE. 

3.6%, or six students, were unsure or preferred not to answer. 

Of those who indicated support for ICE., 90.6% said it was because they enforce immigration laws. 24.5% said they support ICE to protect job market opportunities.

“I support ICE when it comes to detaining criminals. I believe illegal immigrants who come here to the U.S. who have committed crimes should be sent back to protect American citizens,” one response said. “As for illegal immigrants who come here without the documentation needed, who have not committed crimes and just want to help their family, I believe there is a better way ICE and the government should go about it. I don’t think they should be sent back, I believe the government should just help them get their documentation immediately.” 

Conversely, for students who indicated they do not support ICE, their most common reasoning was because of the use of aggressive tactics. 87.4% of students indicated they do not support ICE because of racial profiling accusations.

I found that statistic quite compelling since A-State is a very diverse campus, and with the tense situations that have happened recently on campus surrounding racial profiling, one might think more students find it more important compared to other reasons.

Jade Garibay, a Hispanic student and president of Hermana y Hermano, said ICE has gone way too far.

“As a child of immigrant parents, it’s gone way too far. When people compare it to Obama, there’s a big difference between how that deportation process was compared to how it is now. Obama wasn’t going against hard-working families or separating mothers from their children or even killing people or having kids being detained and used as bait,” Garibay said.

Garibay said because of how unpredictable ICE is, she doesn’t know what would happen if they started having a presence on campus. She said she would like to see the campus administration inform students what to do if ICE came to campus through a guide or other means.

“Everyone’s going to have their own opinions, and that is completely understandable. Keep your opinions to yourself if it’s going to affect (people) negatively,” Garibay said. With minorities or even the Hispanic community overall, we’re going to continue looking out for each other.”

ICE is here, and there is nothing we can do about it other than taking precautions and keeping ourselves and our neighbours safe. 

If you see ICE in your area, make sure to video them. If someone is being taken by ICE, make sure you get their name and address so that their family members can locate which detention center they are in. Do your part. Even though it is scary, there are more of us than there are of them.

Categories: Opinion