Campaign Kicks off with Full-Page Ads in Harvard, Stanford and Virginia Student Newspapers and Open Letter to University Presidents
Washington, D.C. — Restore Public Trust today announced a new accountability campaign backed by a coalition of more than 40 civil rights, immigration, government accountability and other organizations calling on college and university presidents to make clear that senior officials involved in the Trump administration’s horrific family separation policy will not have a place in their classrooms.
The coalition launched an open letter to college and university leadership calling on them to make it clear that their institutions will not offer a soft landing to anyone involved in planning, implementing, or defending the policy.
Organizers also released hard-hitting, full-page ads this week in select campus newspapers, including The Harvard Crimson, The Stanford Daily, and The University of Virginia’s The Cavalier Daily.
View the campus newspaper ad HERE and read the open letter to college and university presidents HERE.
They also released a “Campus Action Toolkit” with sample flyers, social media graphics and more to use to organize their campuses against hiring officials involved in the policies.
View/ Download the Toolkit HERE.
“America’s college and university leaders have a moral responsibility to make it clear that the administration officials responsible for this horrific policy will not be allowed to seek refuge in their classrooms, lecture halls, or auditoriums,” said Karl Frisch, spokesperson for Restore Public Trust. “Disgraced former officials should not be offered cushy fellowships to rehabilitate their image or be given space to explain to students why they were only ‘doing their jobs.’”
The campaign builds off a corporate accountability campaign launched April 6, the one-year anniversary of the ‘zero tolerance’ policy, calling on Fortune 500 CEOs and corporate America to ostracize these officials from their businesses. As part of the campaign, the coalition launched TrumpAdminSeparation.org detailing more than three dozen current and former administration officials who were instrumental in planning, implementing, and defending the policy.
The growing effort comes more than one year after the Trump Administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy that led to child separation crisis. After months of public outcry, President Trump technically rescinded the policy, though many children still haven’t been reunited with their families.
“America’s college and university leaders have a moral responsibility to make it clear that the administration officials responsible for this horrific policy will not be allowed to seek refuge in their classrooms, lecture halls, or auditoriums,” said Karl Frisch, spokesperson for Restore Public Trust. “Disgraced former officials should not be offered cushy fellowships to rehabilitate their image or be given space to explain to students why they were only ‘doing their jobs.’”
Members of the coalition represent hundreds of thousands of Americans, and include the following organizations: Restore Public Trust, Allied Progress, America’s Voice, American Bridge, Bridges Faith Initiative, CASA In Action, Center For Popular Democracy, Equity Forward, Faith in Public Life, Jobs With Justice, Main Street Alliance, MomsRising, National Immigration Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, Workers Defense Project, California Reinvestment Coalition, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights – CHIRLA, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Make the Road New York, AMEXCAN, North Carolina Justice Center, Raleigh Immigration, InterReligious Task Force On Central America and Colombia, Ohio Immigrant Alliance, Transformations CDC, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, American Gateways, Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee, Fuerza Del Valle, La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), Mexican American Legislative Caucus, Proyecto Azteca, RAICES, Texas Civil Rights Project, Workers Defense Project, Youth Rise Texas, OneAmerica.
Earlier this year, Restore Public Trust launched a broader campaign to hold accountable the agencies, companies, and individuals who are responsible for developing, implementing, and/or defending the policy. Restore Public Trust will also drive accountability campaigns against lawmakers in their home states and target corporations who are benefiting from the policy.
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