2015
Northwestern
mandates graduate
students who receive stipends to register through
E-Verify.
Peer
institutions, including University of Chicago, continue not to require
their students register with Homeland Security through E-Verify unless
obligated by a specific federal
grant or contract.
2016 to April, 2018
President
Schapiro and other NU officers disregard requests from faculty and
students to end E-Verify campus-wide, continue to insist they must do
this because they have federal contracts.
November 14, 2016
NU faculty, staff and students
send
letter
to President Schapiro, then-Provost Daniel Linzer, Vice President for
Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin, and Philip Harris, Vice
President and General Counsel, requesting Northwestern University
provide sanctuary to undocumented students, workers, and their families
and requesting that NU not report student citizenship status to the
federal government.
November 18, 2016
In wake of NU
announcing commitment to undocumented students, Director of Deportation
Research Clinic publishes
letter
in Daily Northwestern asking President Schapiro to end
campus-wide use of E-Verify.
May 16, 2017
Students take direct action in response to on-campus presence of U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement public relations officer.
May 25, 2017
Coalition of Students for Immigrant Justice release
listof demands in response to University's
statement condemning
May 16 student action and University's failure to support
undocumented members of campus community and students of color.
Among the demands is to halt NU's voluntary participation in
E-Verify.
April 24,
2018
Students Organizing for Labor Rights sends NU President petition
signed by over 1,000 Northwestern students demanding protections of NU
workers during
transition to Compass as new food services vendor, including not
requiring their employees to use E-Verify and for NU to end E-Verify
campus-wide.
April 25, 2018
Students
Organizing for Labor Rights and Professor Jacqueline Stevens meet with
General Counsel Philip Harris and Deputy General Counsel Stephanie
Graham. Harris
agrees that NU must use E-Verify only for those employed
directly by federal grants and contracts. Parties
agree that Human Resources will follow up.
May 3, 2018
Letter
to Northwestern Daily
from students on hypocrisy in statements by Provost Holloway on
university's co-optation of Bursar's Office Takeover, students demand
action.
May
7, 2018
Faculty
Senate Executive Committee sends resolution for NU to end campus-wide
enrollment to Committee on Social Responsibility for study and
recommendation.
May 17, 2018
Student
activists from Black Lives Matter NU, Latinx Asian American Collective,
and Students Organizing for Labor Rights meet with Provost Holloway.
Provost Holloway states that on May 14 General Counsel Philip
Harris informed administrators that ending E-Verify campus-wide is
possible only after all of the university's current federal contracts
expire and that the University likely does not have a collected record
of all of its federal contracts.
The inconsistency
with plain text of regulation and previous statement by General Counsel
Harris on April 25 are not explained. No explanation is
provided
as to why NU is seemingly unable to enroll in E-Verify only those
working directly on federal grants or contracts, while peer
institutions have been doing this for years.
May
20, 2018
Chief
Human Resource Officer Pamela Beemer in e-mail reiterates analysis
Provost Holloway shared with students and provides list of other
universities that use E-Verify campus-wide. However,
10 out of the 12 are in states
that obligate employers participate in E-Verify, such as
Arizona
.
(The two remaining are Ohio State University and University of
Maryland.)
Unike Arizona, for instance, Illinois public policy disfavors
use
of E-Verify. NU has claimed it supports DACA students and
joined
other universities filing amicus briefs to preserve their legal status.
President Schapiro and Provost Holloway continue to authorize
a program that NU's own legal staff have acknowledged puts
DACA students at great risk.
May
23, 2018
General Counsel Philip Harris sends pdf from USCIS "
E-Verify
Supplemental Guide for Federal Contractors." Harris
writes "...once
an employer elects to verify its entire workforce, and has begun
verifying existing employees, it is not permitted to change its
selection during the duration of the federal contract."
Harris mischaracterizes Guide. Advisal is specific to "
a company," or "
your company," not "
employer."
NU, according to the regulation, is an "institution of higher education" not a "company."
The
regulation
does not exempt
"companies," but it does exempt "a State or local
government or the Government of a federally recognized Indian tribe."
And, of course, the regulation exempts "institutions of higher
education." (Further, in the case of any conflict between a regulation and ad hoc guides that have
not gone through a rule-making process, the plain text of the
regulation prevails.)
Harris alleges that "Timeline of E-Verify at Northwestern
University" mischaracterizes the status of
E-Verify laws in states with universities referenced by Ms. Beemer.
Here are the links to the laws on which the claims were based:
List of the
universities using E-Verify campus-wide provided
by Pam Beemer, NU Vice-President, Chief Human Resources Officer, along
with links to
relevant state laws for claims on Timeline (May 20, 2018).
Harris also claimed in his e-mail that NU started E-Verify
because of "strategic goal of increasing [University's] federal
research funding, by demonstrating that it was a company with a legal
workforce."
According to information online, six of eight
Ivy League universities with esteemed research profiles and major recipients of federal research funding do not use E-Verify campus-wide.
Stevens in email asks Harris for copies of Memorandums of Understanding between NU and
USCIS for the implementation and renewals of
E-Verify.
Stevens
affirms accuracy of other information in Timeline based on notes by
students who attended meetings with administrators, including April 25.
May
24, 2018
Harris
does not provide additional information requested, including
Memorandums of Understanding. Harris writes: "I believe that ample
information has been provided."
October 22, 2018
Professor
Stevens releases the Memorandums of Understanding Harris wanted to keep
secret, obtained after FOIA litigation.
They confirm
that NU can withdraw campus workforce not on federal grants after 30
day notice. (An additional five pages of Excel sheets also were
to be released and were not included by error. USCIS is now
sending them and they will be added when received.)
Professor Stevens also releases
USCIS
spreadsheet revealing Northwestern among the fewer than 1% of
certificate or degree granting institutions that signed MOUs to
participate in E-Verify campuswide.