Protest drowns out far-right ASU group urging students to snitch to ICE

On Wednesday, the Arizona State University chapter of the far-right group College Republicans United announced it would set up a table at the school to urge fellow students to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on their classmates. Friday, four CRU members stood near a table outside Hayden Library, only to be met by hundreds of pro-immigrant and anti-MAGA protesters.

Many of the protesters carried flags and signs with statements like, “Immigrants make America great,” “Proud daughter of an immigrant,” “No one is illegal on stolen land,” “Immigrants welcome, racists NOT” and “Stand with ASU Dreamers.”

One protester wearing a mask and holding a can of beans skyward in his fist was reprimanded by ASU police for making at least one other student feel threatened. Another student flipped over the CRU table, earning a ticket from police. The table remained on the ground for about an hour, until the four CRU members left as protesters heckled them.

“You go back home,” someone shouted as they left.

For much of the previous hour, the four CRU members stood on the Hayden Library lawn while arguing with protesters and taking questions from the press. Isaiah Alvarado, the group’s president, avoided questions from reporters about the advice he’s giving students about identifying undocumented immigrants among the student population.

“The real point (of the event) is to generate public consciousness that the Trump admin is not doing enough as it currently stands,” Alvarado said, whose group has argued for the deportation of immigrants brought to the country as children who now have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status. Alvarado also complained that too many non-American students were present at American universities.

“I don’t believe that they should be at the forefront,” he said. “I think American institutions should be serving American students.”

Kevin Decuyper, a past CRU president and aide to ex-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, wore an “America First” hat and held up a shoddily written, barebones sign with an ICE hotline URL and a clipboard with its phone number. When asked by protesters why he supported Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 insurrectionists while calling undocumented immigrants “criminals,” Decuyper seemed at a loss for words. Decuyper has not had trouble expressing virulently antisemitic views online, though.

Notably, Decuyper told the Arizona Republic in November he hadn’t been associated with CRU since 2018.

Two other students in sunglasses and black ties remained silent and did not respond to New Times’ questions. One did respond childishly to a student asking Alvarado questions by replying, “Why are you ugly, dude?” All declined to say whether its members had reported anyone to ICE yet.

ASU says little

Among the crowd were several notable local figures, including Reyna Montoya, the founder and executive director of the immigration advocacy group Aliento, and state Reps. Cesar Aguilar and Lorena Austin.

Aguilar and Austin were two of 28 state lawmakers who signed a statement calling on ASU administrators to investigate the CRU, punish the students involved and no longer recognize it as a student organization. The lawmakers argued that by encouraging students to snitch on immigrants — or anyone they believed to be immigrants — CRU’s members were violating school policy.

Aguilar told New Times he and other lawmakers met with the university’s administrators and hope to hear from President Michael Crow soon. ASU did not address the CRU event publicly until after Friday’s protests had ended.

“Encouraging ASU students to make indiscriminate complaints to law enforcement about fellow students is not in keeping with the principles which underlie our academic community,” the university said in a statement posted to its website. “We are here to teach and learn — not to engage in self-aggrandizing conduct meant solely to generate as much media attention and controversy as possible.

“But we must also recognize that we live in a country that protects individual free speech, even speech that is hurtful. The Dean of Students and ASU Police are available to assist any student who is threatened or harassed.”

College Republicans United — not to be confused with the school’s other, more mainstream college Republicans group — has a history of far-right extremism.

In 2023, it hosted an event featuring white nationalist Nick Fuentes that got the group into hot water for erroneously naming county Republicans as supporters. A year earlier, the group invited white nationalist Jared Taylor onto campus to give a speech, costing ASU $11,000 in security expenses. In 2019, Phoenix New Times reported the contents of a group chat in which CRU members shared racist, antisemitic and homophobic sentiments.

Here are more photos from the protest.