via
Getty)
Support
for
ICE
has,
thankfully,
been
on
the
decline.
About
2/3rds
of
Americans
think
that
ICE
has
gone
too
far
in
enforcing
immigration
laws;
killing
nurses
helping
women
being
attacked
by
ICE
and
boasting
about
silencing
dissent
is
not
the
way
to
win
people
on
your
side.
The
repeated
civil
rights
abuses
and
advanced
surveillance
tactics
have
pushed
the
liberty
interested
law
students
at
Harvard
to
call
for
the
school
to
divest
from
companies
and
firms
that
enable
ICE.
The
Crimson
has
coverage:
Roughly
50
Harvard
Law
School
students
rallied
Wednesday
outside
Wasserstein
Hall,
urging
the
University
to
divest
from
major
tech
companies
they
say
help
power
immigration
enforcement
and
to
cut
recruiting
ties
with
law
firms
they
allege
collaborate
with
U.S.
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement.
…
The
petition
names
Palantir,
Meta,
Alphabet,
Amazon,
and
Microsoft,
alleging
that
the
companies
provide
the
data
infrastructure,
cloud
computing,
and
surveillance
technology
that
powers
immigration
enforcement…Organizers
are
also
demanding
that
OCS
suspend
outreach
from
four
private
law
firms
—
Latham
&
Watkins,
Davis
Wright
Tremaine,
Greenberg
Traurig,
and
Fox
Rothschild
—
and
several
U.S.
Attorney’s
offices
that
the
petition
says
have
collaborated
with
ICE
within
the
past
year.
A
lot
of
this
is
just
true:
ICE
ordered
$30M
worth
of
tracking
tech
from
Palantir
last
year,
the
Department
of
Homeland
Services
houses
loads
of
their
information
using
Amazon
Web
Servies,
and
ICE
has
tripled
their
reliance
on
Microsoft
in
the
last
6
months.
That
said,
it
is
harder
to
find
smoking
guns
for
the
named
firms.
Latham
&
Watkins
signaled
readiness
to
work
with
firms
that
have
ICE
interactions
and
Davis
Wright
Tremaine
fought
against
ICE
cracking
down
on
free
speech
in
2019.
That
doesn’t
scream
complicity
with
ICE
to
me.
None
of
the
named
firms
responded
to
The
Crimson
for
comment,
but
an
announcement
could
be
a
good
opportunity
for
them
to
either
clear
their
names
or
contextualize
whatever
work
is
being
read
as
ICE
collaboration.
Doing
so
could
also
run
the
risk
of
getting
picked
on
by
the
administration
—
bad
optics
all
around,
but
there’s
the
rub.
Part
of
the
student
petition
asks
that
firms
and
federal
agencies
publicly
pledge
that
they
will
not
represent
companies
that
help
ICE
before
they
are
allowed
back
on
campus.
This
lines
up
with
efforts
made
by
Georgetown
and
George
Washington
law
students
that
tried
to
prevent
their
campuses
from
becoming
ICE
recruitment
centers.
Power
to
the
students.
As
they
put
pressure
on
the
administration
to
be
on
the
right
side
of
history,
may
it
encourage
law
students
elsewhere
to
do
the
same
at
their
schools.
Harvard
Law
Students
Demand
Divestment
From
Tech
Giants,
Ban
on
Law
Firms
They
Say
Enable
ICE
[The
Crimson]
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boat
builder
who
is
learning
to
swim
and
is
interested
in
rhetoric,
Spinozists
and
humor.
Getting
back
in
to
cycling
wouldn’t
hurt
either.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.