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Education

Johns Hopkins not renewing contract under which medical school has trained ICE agents for emergencies

By Talia Richman and Phil Davis
Baltimore Sun
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At center, Yona Gorelick, with Jews United for Justice, and Evan Serpick, of Baltimore Jews Against ICE, led the chants as more than 100 protesters marched in the heat through Artscape in July to protest the involvement of two Artscape sponsors, Johns Hopkins University, and PNC Bank, for their business involvement with ICE through contracts and financing. They concluded their march with a short rally in front of the Johns Hopkins University stage on North Charles Street.

At center, Yona Gorelick, with Jews United for Justice, and Evan Serpick, of Baltimore Jews Against ICE, led the chants as more than 100 protesters marched in the heat through Artscape in July to protest the involvement of two Artscape sponsors, Johns Hopkins University, and PNC Bank, for their business involvement with ICE through contracts and financing. They concluded their march with a short rally in front of the Johns Hopkins University stage on North Charles Street. (Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun/Baltimore Sun)

The Johns Hopkins University is ending one of its contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announcing Thursday that the medical school has severed an agreement to train federal immigration agents in responding to emergency medical situations.

In a statement, university spokeswoman Kim Hoppe wrote that the medical school notified ICE’s Office of Investigations several weeks ago that it would not be renewing the contract, which has trained ICE’s Special Response Teams in medical training since 2004.

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“After careful and deliberate consideration, the JHU Center for Law Enforcement Medicine will not be renewing this contract,” Hoppe wrote, adding that university officials are negotiating how to execute “a safe and orderly wrap up of the medical programs.”

Students have long protested the university’s contracts with ICE and aggressively called for the school to sever ties. They’ve accused the university of "pretending to stand for progressive principles while reaping the rewards of dirty business.”

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As part of a monthlong sit-in at Garland Hall in April, students demanded the university end its contracts with ICE andcancel plans for its own police force.

A few months earlier, students and faculty walked out of class and marched around campus chanting, “Caging children is horrific, JHU is complicit” and “JHU hear us shout, we won’t stop until ICE is out.”

Since 2008, the university has earned more than $7 million from 37 contracts with ICE, according to government spending data. Hopkins has three contracts with the agency totaling more than $1.7 million. The contracts, set to expire this year, are primarily with the medical school for educational programs that provide emergency medical training and leadership education.

University leadership has pushed back against the protesters, saying they must protect academic freedom.

A separate contract the university has with the agency to train agents in its Public Safety Leadership program is set to expire this year and the university wrote in a letter to students in October that the “program as a whole is currently being wound down.”

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