In Solidarity with International Academic Workers Under Attack by the Trump Administration

The Trump administration’s attacks on international scholars affect up to thousands of UAW-represented workers at Harvard University. Across the country, the federal government is escalating its targeting of immigrant and international workers, and what’s happening at Harvard is no different. The labor movement must see these attacks as what they are—an attempt to divide workers and create false enemies to distract us from the real fight against rampant corporate greed and authoritarianism.

Last Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was revoking Harvard’s certification to enroll international students, directly impacting international student workers represented by HGSU-UAW Local 5118 and thousands more workers who are part of organizing drives and first contract fights among postdoctoral researchers and lecturers (HAW-UAW) and undergraduate student workers (HUWU-UAW). Although the executive order has been restrained pending a lawsuit filed by the university, the intended threat to our members’ livelihoods is clear.

We also stand in solidarity with our fellow HAW-UAW member Kseniia Petrova and all other international academic workers unjustly detained or facing threats of deportation. The Trump administration has additionally attempted to deport Kseniia and charge her with meritless accusations of criminal smuggling after learning she was a political dissident in her home country of Russia. Instead of being able to continue her groundbreaking research at Harvard Medical School, she is scheduled for a bail hearing in federal court today.

These attacks on our members at Harvard specifically are happening at the same time the Trump administration is seeking to leverage federal funding that advances critical medical and scientific research as part of a broader attack on higher education institutions nationwide. We know from international workers’ movements for justice that attacking education is often the first chapter of a playbook used by authoritarians around the world.

Our mission as the UAW is to fight for the working class, and that includes our access to higher education. Our union is here to support our members at Harvard and beyond as we fight for the future of all workers and immigrants in this country.

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