The behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has been in the national spotlight, especially since the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minn. last week. On Tuesday, a group of about 30 students gathered to discuss ICE and the shooting in an event hosted by the Dartmouth chapter of the conservative organization Turning Point USA.
While TPUSA is staunchly conservative, many students who attended the open-to-campus event were not TPUSA members and expressed views critical of ICE.
“This is how you deal with a wild animal, not a human being,” one participant said. “I don’t know what kind of country we live in.”
Dartmouth TPUSA co-founder and event co-moderator Vittorio Bloyer ’28 estimated that out of around 30 people at the Jan. 13 meeting, only 10 to 12 were conservatives.
The Dartmouth chapter of TPUSA, founded last spring, seeks to offer a “safe space” for conservatives on campus, according to Bloyer. He said that before the chapter was founded, Dartmouth’s campus lacked a “true conservative” organization.
“There was always the Dartmouth Conservatives, but I founded the Turning Point chapter to bring in more conservative voices, to actively promote ideas that were underrepresented on campus,” he said.
Knowl Stroud ’29, who is also not a TPUSA member, said he thought some participants in the discussion “missed the point,” adding that “it’s kind of hard to debate with conservatives.”
“The conservatives twisted [the discussion] to say, ‘Oh, so you think all Europeans should go back to Europe?’” Stroud said. “That’s kind of racist.”
Ameha Fekade ’29 said that he attended the event because he felt that TPUSA needed to be “challenged.”
“Let this be known: I will always be at Turning Point USA events, because they need somebody to challenge them,” Fekade said. “We can’t just let their viewpoints run unchecked.”
Some participants defended ICE agents’ behavior, pointing to the dangers faced by law enforcement personnel.
“However you want to feel about it, there’s a huge consequence to doing your job as an ICE agent in this country,” one participant said. “And we’re talking about taking amnesty away from these people while they’re in the business of protecting this country.”
Other participants were less sympathetic to ICE agents.
“Why are you empathizing with the officers?” one participant asked. “If you’re an ICE officer and you still decide to work at ICE, you’re endorsing the racially motivated expulsion that is happening.”
