 |
| Borough President Eric Adams and Hercules E Reid
Vice Chair for Legislative Affairs
CUNY University Student Senate.
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MONDAY, JANUARY 30TH
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT - EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
225 CADMAN PLAZA EAST
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and City University of New York (CUNY) student leaders, including members of the University Student Senate (USS) and CUNY DREAMers, spoke out in concern for Saira Rafiee, a young woman enrolled at the CUNY Graduate Center through an F1 visa who is being denied reentry into the United States due to President Donald J. Trump's executive order banning the migration of citizens from several Muslim-majority countries; the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident, who was on vacation during her winter break to see family members in her native Iran, was told by customs officials in the United Arab Emirates that she would be unable to return to school in America. Approximately 120 students from the impacted countries are enrolled in the CUNY system. In addition to urging President Trump to rescind the ban, Borough President Adams urged all schools and colleges, both public and private, to address the concerns of students, parents, and guardians who, due to their citizenship status, are at risk from the actions of the Trump administration.
Borough President Adams was joined by members of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and Professional Staff Congress (PSC)-CUNY, as well as Rafiee's cousin Mina, who will deliver a message on behalf of her relative.
- Statement from Barbara Bowen: http://www.psc-cuny.org/news-events/psc-member-denied-entry-us
- Statement from CUNY Chancellor JB Milliken: http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2017/01/29/message-from-chancellor-milliken/
- Statement from GC President Chase Robinson and Provost Joy Connolly: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/About-the-GC/President-s-Office/Communications/Detail?id=38761
Faculty, students and Staff at CUNY were there.
The CUNY ]Resists-Trumps-Muslim-Ban
issued a statement.
------DRAFT -----
As students, faculty, alumni, and supporters of the City University of New York (CUNY) we strongly condemn the Trump administration’s racist, anti-immigrant, and Islamophobic travel ban. One of our community members, Saira Rafiee, a Ph.D student at the Graduate Center, was denied entry under Trump’s executive order. As she attempted to return for the start of the semester Saira was detained in Abu Dabi for 18 hours and then put on a flight to Tehran. We demand the end of this Muslim Ban and the clearance for Saira to return to the US.
Other schools are invited to join and add demands for affected community members.
Surrounded by students with signs declaring: "Let her in," Borough President Eric Adams condemned the Trump administration, noting Brookyn is an immigrant community. Paraphrasing Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller's adage, first they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Adams noted that they are coming for the Muslims today. But tomorrow if could be any of us. He called for schools and government to protect all our students, making a place for them, supporting their efforts and our diversity.
He read Rafiee's statement to the press.
I, Saira Rafiee, Ph.D. student of political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, was among god knows how many citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen that have been denied entry to the US. I was on a vacation, going back to my country to see my loved ones, like many other students. I was about to check in at the airport, when Donald Trump signed the EO, banning people from the above-mentioned countries from entering the US. I got on the flight to Abu Dhabi, but there at the airport was told that I would not be able to enter the US. I had to stay there for nearly 18 hours, along with 11 other Iranians, before getting on the flight back to Tehran. I have no clue whether I would ever be able to go back to the school I like so much, or to see my dear friends there. But my story isn’t as painful and terrifying as many other stories I have heard these days. I know an Iranian student in the US, who was planning to go back to Iran to see her sister who has cancer probably for the last time, but had to cancel her trip because of this order. A dear friend of mine, a Columbia Ph.D. student, went to Canada on Friday to be with his fiancée for the weekend, and is not able to go back to his studies and work, back to his scholarly life. I know many students who are outside the US, doing fieldwork for their dissertation, and have no clue whether they can finish their studies after studying for many years. And these stories are not even close in painfulness and horror to those of the people who are fleeing war and disastrous situations in their home countries.
The sufferings of all of us are just one side of this horrendous order. The other side is the struggle against racism and fascism, against assaults on freedom and human dignity, against all the values that even though are far from being realized, are the only things that would make life worth living. As a student of sociology and political science, I have devoted a major part of my scholarly life to the study of authoritarianism. The media has published enough statistics during the past few days to show how irrelevant this order is to the fight against terrorism. It is time to call things by their true names; this is Islamophobia, racism, fascism. We, the 99% of the world, need to stand united in resisting the authoritarian forces all over the world.
I want to thank all my dear comrades, classmates and professors at the Graduate Center, who have been following my situation since yesterday and have spent a great deal of time to help me and many others in the same conditions. This is a fight for all of us, and I am sure the people, united, will never be defeated.
As of now, Saira Rafiee is in Tehran.
All of New York supports her return to CUNY.
The sufferings of all of us are just one side of this horrendous order. The other side is the struggle against racism and fascism, against assaults on freedom and human dignity, against all the values that even though are far from being realized, are the only things that would make life worth living. As a student of sociology and political science, I have devoted a major part of my scholarly life to the study of authoritarianism. The media has published enough statistics during the past few days to show how irrelevant this order is to the fight against terrorism. It is time to call things by their true names; this is Islamophobia, racism, fascism. We, the 99% of the world, need to stand united in resisting the authoritarian forces all over the world.
I want to thank all my dear comrades, classmates and professors at the Graduate Center, who have been following my situation since yesterday and have spent a great deal of time to help me and many others in the same conditions. This is a fight for all of us, and I am sure the people, united, will never be defeated.
As of now, Saira Rafiee is in Tehran.
All of New York supports her return to CUNY.
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