A group of Fordham University students rallied outside of the Lincoln Center campus on April 8 in support of a Fordham student who had their visa revoked. The rally was organized by Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who demanded more action by the university in response to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) revoking of student visas. Fordham SJP is not an officially recognized club on campus.
“The fact that somebody at Fordham, a part of our community, was put in danger was enough for me to want to come out here to make sure Fordham stands up and protects the students to the best of their ability,” said one of the protestors, Kenny Moll, FCLC ’25.
SJP published a list of demands for Fordham’s administration on Instagram. Their statement on Instagram calls for “immediate transparency from the administration, a public commitment to non-cooperation with immigration enforcement, and material support for any affected students.”
The rally began at noon with around 12 protesters gathered on the sidewalk outside of Lowenstein Plaza. Approximately 14 NYPD officers were also present. They primarily interacted with protestors to clear the sidewalk. During the protest, an NYPD officer instructed a student to put away a megaphone and said that they needed a permit to use it.
Several students led call-and-response chants throughout the rally while other protesters held signs. The chants primarily regarded demands that the students have for the university. The event lasted until about 2 p.m., with nearly 70 attendees at its peak.
“I hope administration understands our demands for legal aid and support of this student,” Moll said. “Financial support, transparency and communication with the Fordham community about this, about what’s going on, and then a commitment not to capitulate to ICE or the Department of Homeland Security and to really understand that this is upsetting to a lot of students, this will affect their bottom line if they are treating the university as a business.”
Moll also said they hope for more action from President Tania Tetlow. She recently sent an email regarding immigration status and higher education institutions. In that email, she mentioned that a Fordham student’s visa had been revoked.
“I hope [Tetlow] does a lot more than just thoughts and prayer,” said Moll. “I hope there is direct financial support for the student, legal aid given to the student with support of the university instead of just, you know, kind of a half measure that leaves the entire campus confused and worried for future students.”
Student leaders said they took several actions to make the protest safer for students, keeping in mind that several students were arrested during the pro-Palestinian protest and encampment at the Lincoln Center campus last year. Moll said one precaution they took was making sure to stay on the sidewalk and off of campus property.
“Our campus is pretty oppressive when it comes to rallies and protests and stuff like that, and they’ve made it very clear in the past that they view us more so as a threat than a student body, so staying off their campus is one of the most important things we did today to ensure that our community was safe, and unfortunately that means keeping our community safe from the university itself,” Moll said.
Members of Fordham SJP also suggested that international students not participate in the protest due to safety concerns specifically regarding student visas. Moll emphasized that students feel they cannot trust the university to protect its students.
“We made sure that students on visas, international students, immigrant students did not come because we do not have faith within our university to protect those students if NYPD is around, if ICE is notified of this rally, and that’s really disappointing to us,” Moll said. “We have a lot of international students on this campus who want to be a part of these protests, but don’t feel safe, and so our main goal today was ensuring the protection of everybody who came to today’s rally.”
Michael Magazine, FCLC ’26, an organizer, reiterated Moll’s ideas.
“We told people … to not have [international students] show up just because of the concerns on ICE and DHS being here in person,” said Magazine. “Clearly, NYPD was here in force, and we know they’re collaborating, so it was a security concern.”
Magazine said SJP will continue to take action as they receive updates about international student visas.
“We definitely are a rapid response-based group, so in nine days from now if that student does try to get deported by ICE we would definitely do something in response to that,” Magazine said. “But, we’re obviously examining the situation as it evolves, and we’ll have more events as needed.”
Additional reporting by Allison Schneider, Andrew Massie and Sienna Reinders.
