San Jose

Border Patrol ‘Disinvited' to San Jose City College Job Fair

Border Patrol agents were scheduled to visit the San Jose City College campus Tuesday to recruit students at a job fair, but due to protests from immigration activists, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recruiters have been disinvited.

The college west of downtown San Jose said its job fair organizing partner, Work2Future, asked CBP to not attend the event on campus following a request from the San Jose City College administration.

"With all that has happened nationally and locally around the immigration issue in recent years, it is the Administration’s preference that the Border Patrol stay off campus," college spokesperson Ryan Brown told NBC Bay Area.

Elizabeth Pratt, the college's acting president, sent out a campus-wide email Monday, saying she is confident that the administration made the right choice by not including CBP.

"We serve a very diverse student population, a large percentage of whom have immigrated to the US from other nations and an even larger percentage of our students have family members who are immigrants. For many in this population, the presence of US Customs and Border Protection representatives on campus—regardless of their intentions or reasons for being there—can cause undue distress and concern,"Pratt added.

In a statement, CBP said it wanted to share career opportunities with the campus but it respects the decision by the college and students.

Immigration activists rallied outside the college's gymnasium Tuesday morning to celebrate their victory and show support for immigrants. The activist group, Dump Trump San Jose, delivered their message Monday via flier and Facebook post.

"With the escalating violence, family separations, incarceration, and deportations leveled against migrants and immigrant communities by Border Patrol and ICE and the recent trumped up charges against 3 college students in Tucson, Arizona for disrupting a presentation by Border Patrol agents on their campus, we call on the student body and members of our community in the South Bay to send a clear message to Border Patrol: the agents of upholding racist borders are not welcome here," the message said.

The group had been encouraging followers for more than a week to call the office of the San Jose City College president to demand that the Border Patrol be banned from the job fair and future college events, NBC News reported.

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