On Thursday, May 1 at 3 p.m., over 100 students, faculty, and community members gathered on the steps of North College to urge Wesleyan’s administration to ensure the safety of international students, strengthen labor rights, and protect student protesters.
The rally, which was organized by the Wesleyan Rights Coalition (WRC), was planned in conjunction with worldwide protests for May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day. Although the United States does not officially recognize May 1 as International Workers’ Day, protests were organized by labor groups and leftist political organizations in most major cities. On campus, the organizers encouraged attendees to join them in attending a subsequent 5 p.m. rally in New Haven.
According to WRC member Roshan Hatley ’27, the New Haven protest was attended by 1,500 individuals.
At North College, protesters formed a dense semi-circle around speakers at the building’s front steps. While the speakers covered dozens of topics ranging from international immigration conflicts to highly local labor issues, the central focus of the rally was on the uncertain status of international students around the country, whom the new Trump administration has increasingly targeted. Protest organizers did not respond to a request for a complete list of speakers at the rally.
The Trump administration recently revoked the visas of hundreds of international students at over 80 universities, most of whom had participated in peaceful pro-Palestine protests. These protesters were arrested on the grounds of arcane immigration laws and untested legal theories, but targeted students have racked up significant legal wins within the court system.
On Friday, April 25, the administration abruptly reversed course, restoring many revoked visas in a dramatic turn which many legal experts viewed as a quiet admission of the original move’s shaky legal standing. Nevertheless, attendees at Thursday’s protests expressed fear that judicial injunctions would not stop an administration that has been viewed as increasingly authoritarian by constitutional experts and political scientists alike.
While there has been no indication that any international student at Wesleyan has had their visa revoked, concern regarding the resurgence of the policies was palpable on Thursday.
Ashley Huesca, a sophomore from Wellesley College who is a Mexican-American dual citizen studying at Wesleyan through its partnership with the University Network for Human Rights, attended the protest to support international students.
“But this administration won’t just stop with immigrants,” Huesca said. “They’ve been detaining citizens…. We need to stand up for everyone. If one person isn’t free, no one is free.”
The protest took place as universities across the nation have begun an increasingly public-facing fight against the Trump administration, taking broad legal actions to combat what they see as the federal government’s overreach into universities’ academic affairs and rules of conduct. During Thursday’s protest, speakers criticized what they saw as a surrender by elite institutions, including Columbia University and Harvard University, to the White House. The administration has demanded a sweeping array of internal policy changes from the two schools after unilaterally canceling $400 million and $2.2 billion in federal grants to them respectively. It was unclear why Harvard was included in the speakers’ remarks; while Columbia acceded to the Trump administration’s initial demands, Harvard has sworn to fight the government in court. Neither university has struck a finalized deal with the administration.
In a booklet handed to rally attendees, the WRC laid out a variety of demands directed at the Wesleyan administration. The list, while focusing primarily on the protection of international students, also included several requests that have been repeatedly insisted upon by pro-Palestine student organizations, including for Wesleyan to end the disciplinary procedures it pursued against some students involved in last fall’s pro-Palestine protests.
However, many of the demands pertained directly to international students. On Tuesday, April 22, in an email sent to all international students, the Office of International Student Affairs (OISA) indicated that international students planning on leaving the country and returning for the Fall 2025 semester should exercise caution due to the heightened risk of deportation. However, OISA said that international students who decide to stay in the United States would only be guaranteed on-campus summer housing if their estimated family contribution is less than $7,000 annually, a bar that would exclude a vast majority of international students.
Hatley argued that this policy could force international students to return to their home countries, putting their re-entry to the United States at risk.
“One of our main demands is calling for the University to provide housing for all international students, regardless of financial aid,” Hatley said. “The demand around international student housing is extremely urgent, and we definitely hope that we can see some movement around that, some reevaluation of their decision.”
Following OISA’s email, the WRC wrote to President Michael Roth ’78 and the board of trustees, directly asking the university administration to reconsider its policy.
“Considering the recommendations of OISA, some international students have demonstrated worries about their ability to afford summer housing, even though they do not receive financial aid from Wesleyan,” the WRC wrote. “It is on these grounds that the WRC requests the University to reconsider whether it will provide summer housing and dining for international students who request it, regardless of their financial aid status. Until these considerations are met, many international students will have to exit the country with the uncertainty of whether they will come back to their studies.”
According to protest organizer Rosa ’25, Wesleyan responded to the email, indicating that they were willing to consider the request.
However, on Thursday, May 1, Director of International Student Services Morgan Keller indicated that while he was familiar with the contents of the WRC’s email, OISA had not received any communication from Wesleyan directing them to adjust the housing restrictions.
The demands for greater guarantees of security came as Ada Nowakowska ’25, an international student from Poland, reportedly fled the United States for fear of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Nowakowska was an organizer for the pro-Palestine rally that was held on Feb. 24, 2025. Following the protest, the WRC claimed, Nowakowska faced surveillance by the Middletown Police Department.
“I was living in constant fear for weeks,” Nowakowska was quoted as saying in a WRC Instagram post published on Sunday, April 27, 2025.
In the booklet handed to rally attendees, the WRC also requested that the Wesleyan administration commit to paying for potential legal fees incurred by students targeted by the Trump administration. Organizers see this as a relatively simple method for the University to leverage its $1.5 billion endowment against the Trump administration.
On March 31, in a meeting with the Wesleyan Student Assembly’s (WSA) Academic Affairs Committee, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor of Dance, Professor of African American Studies, and Professor of Environmental Studies Nicole Stanton indicated that the University would cover legal defense fees for international students.
However, in a meeting with The Argus on April 8, Roth walked back Stanton’s comments, saying that Wesleyan would not commit to supporting students’ legal fees. It’s unclear to what extent this move has been taken under serious consideration or whether renewed student demands will push Wesleyan to reconsider.
WSA Senator Casey Dunning-Sorey ’28, who spoke at the rally, emphasized that student organizers should leverage the WSA’s voice at the administrative level to put pressure on the university administration. Dunning-Sorey encouraged attendees to attend the WSA’s weekly open comment period and share their concerns.
Rosa argued that the University would not take action on the issue without significant protest. Additionally, she said, student organizations had spent too much time and effort targeting Roth, specifically, in past protests.
“We need to stop focusing on Roth,” Rosa said. “This needs to be a student movement. We need to mobilize thousands of people.”
June Labourdette ’25, who also spoke at the rally, echoed Rosa’s point.
“We must organize in big numbers in the streets,” Labourdette said. “That means getting your friends to come, getting your classmates to come. This means talking to your coworkers. We need more than sporadic rallies; we need a powerful mass movement.”
Despite broad frustration with him in student activist circles, Roth has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration’s policies, condemning the federal government’s approach to immigration enforcement.
“[These policies] have nothing to do with protecting the security of the United States,” Roth wrote on his blog on March 28. “They are efforts to silence the Muslim community, international visitors to the country, and institutions of higher education. Our government is running a campaign of fear, and we must resist it in the strongest possible terms.”
In the same post, Roth wrote in support of Palestinian activist, graduate student, and U.S. permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by ICE on March 9, 2025, for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University.
On Thursday, Khalil’s arrest was fresh in the minds of attendees.
“Free Khalil,” many rally-goers chanted.
Wesleyan Democrats member Brendan Barry ’28, who spoke at the WRC rally, referenced the fact that this week, ICE made an arrest at the Middletown Courthouse. Additionally, he said, a second individual was arrested on Thursday.
“These are law enforcement thugs,” Barry said. “Masked government officials threw [the arrested individual] into the back of an unmarked SUV.”
In the first arrest, which occurred on Tuesday, April 29, witnesses reported that the arresting agents wore a range of clothing; some of them wore clothes displaying an affiliation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while others simply identified as police.
Neither of the arrested individuals’ identities or immigration statuses could be independently confirmed.
Middletown Mayor Benjamin Florsheim ’14 indicated that ICE had not preemptively informed the City of Middletown of the first arrest.
“The city is currently in the process of seeking all relevant information about this case, and I have been in touch with [U.S. Senator Chris] Murphy and [Connecticut] Attorney General [William] Tong to determine next steps,” Florsheim said in a statement.
Rally speakers emphasized that these arrests would not stop simply due to increased media scrutiny or minority opposition in Congress. Labourdette rejected back-and-forth partisan conflict at the federal level, arguing that change would only come from a broader, class-based movement.
“No matter how much coverage these actions get, the ruling class will only feel threatened by a mass united front of working people together,” Labourdette said.
This mentality was on display with the selection of rally speakers; despite some speakers openly condemning the Democratic Party for perceived inaction against the Trump administration, organizers allowed Barry, a member of the Wesleyan Democrats, to speak at the event. His speech was well-received by the crowd.
The disseminated WRC booklet emphasized that Wesleyan should publicly refuse to cooperate with law and immigration enforcement agencies attempting to target students and should provide students, faculty, and staff with information regarding their constitutional rights.
Additionally, it provided a contingency plan in the case of the arrest of an international student on campus. Immediately following a student’s arrest, the WRC said, the group would organize daily protests at the Usdan University Center, alongside larger, regionally coordinated rallies in support of the student. These protests would occur alongside other peaceful measures, including press conferences and demands for a public condemnation of the arrest by Wesleyan.
Miles Pinsof-Berlowitz can be reached at mpinsofberlo@wesleyan.edu.
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