Students rally over Homeland Security’s presence, celebrate it backing out of career fair
By Victoria Rivera, Staff Writer
A group of Towson University students held a part-protest, part-victory rally Monday. The rally was initially to protest Homeland Security Investigation’s attendance at an upcoming career fair, but after Towson officials announced it pulled out, the group still decided to hold the rally in celebration.
Towson’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter known as YDSA organized the protest last week when Homeland Security Investigations, known as HSI, was still slated to attend the Fall 2025 Career and Internship Fair. HSI is a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement, which has sparked controversy over increasing the number of raids on immigrants living in the country.
Towson officials told The Towerlight over text on Sept. 19 that HSI had informed the career center it would not be attending the fair. That turned the event from a pure protest into a partial celebration.
Roughly 10 people rallied across from Tiger Plaza Monday afternoon, with signs reading statements like “Neutrality is siding with the oppressor” and “Immigrants built America.” The protest lasted for two hours.
YDSA also created a petition to remove HSI, and received over 700 signatures, according to Co-Chair Noah Glorioso.
“A petition with that many signatures sort of shows HSI that we don’t want them on campus,” Glorioso said. “We’re not going to be giving them a friendly welcome when they announced they were coming.”
The Career Center cannot bar employers from attending the career fair unless the organization provides illegal services, according to Vice President of the Career Center Lorie Logan-Bennett, who clarified the career center’s position at a meeting in early September.
HSI was expected to attend the Spring 2025 Mega Job & Internship fair last semester was well, but it pulled out of that fair too after student backlash, making this semester the second time in a row it’s decided to pull out.
Although HSI already pulled out of the fair, YDSA still has the ultimate hope of receiving a statement from the university on future dealings with ICE.
“We still really want, like, clear public guidelines, for faculty and staff, on what to do if ICE tries to show up in some enforcement capacity on campus,” Glorioso said.
Due to technical difficulties with The Towerlight’s website, this article was originally published in the Towerlight Today e-newsletter on Sept. 23, 2025. The article was posted to The Towerlight’s website on Oct. 5, 2025.