NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For the second time since February, students at the College of Southern Nevada are expressing concern over U.S. Customs and Border Protection tabling at an on-campus career fair on Wednesday.
The agency is one of dozens registered to participate on Wednesday at the CSN North Las Vegas campus.
Some students, like Ismarit Gonzalez, are not happy about it.
“It does feel like the student voices are being dismissed, because we talked about it the previous semester how it’s affecting students, how it’s affecting faculty members,” she explained.
WATCH | Students express concerns over the agency participating in the career fair:
We heard from students and staff in February about the same issue. At that point, CBP ultimately decided not to participate, according to a statement the school put out just before the event.
Juan Avalos is the college’s vice president of student affairs, and spoke with Channel 13 for our previous reporting. The school had student sessions to discuss issues and concerns, which Gonzalez was a part of.
“We’ve taken protocols to make sure that we have plenty of security and folks on the ground to make sure that we’re monitoring that everyone’s doing great," Avalos said.
Avalos said legally, they can’t keep CBP from participating in the career fair, but that they’d been in contact with the reps who will be on campus Wednesday.
“We’ve also had conversations with all of our law enforcement agencies who will be participating, because [some] of the feedback that we received was for some of our students, their history with law enforcement agencies has been traumatic,” he said. “So we’ve had conversations about how to minimize that.”
Still, it’s not enough to make Gonzalez and her peers feel comfortable going to the event.
“There’s many undocumented students here and it doesn’t only affect Hispanics, but it affects international students,” she said.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson sent Channel 13 a statement:
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection is committed to open, ongoing engagement with the communities we serve. We regularly partner with schools, community groups, industry, and the media. Outreach with public and private partners helps CBP reach the best applicants. We encourage individuals interested in a career with CBP to visit our official careers website, www.cbp.gov/careers [cbp.gov]. ICE and CBP will continue to deliver on the President’s promise to make America safe again and remove criminal illegal aliens in our communities."
Students plan to rally on Tuesday ahead of the career fair in opposition to CBP attending the event.
