Pressuring JHU to stand up for student and community members' rights

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Pressuring JHU to stand up for student and community members' rights
An open letter to JHU donors urging them to speak out

April 10, 2025

Listen/Read: WYPR's 4/11/2025 story on this action

With DHS and ICE openly flouting the law and disappearing people into distant detention centers and overseas gulags, without due process and against court orders, it is more critical than ever that our local institutions stand up to defend our rights. 

After news broke that Johns Hopkins University–one of Baltimore’s most respected and well-financed institutions–would be obeying in advance with DHS/ICE actions against students and community members rather than defending their rights as a top priority, several of us reached out to the student organizers at Hopkins to see how we could help support them. Since we are not formally associated with the institution, we decided to launch a pressure campaign targeting JHU’s biggest donor, Mike Bloomberg, urging him to speak out.

We wrote an open letter to Mike Bloomberg and invited folks to sign it, listing their affiliation with Johns Hopkins (if any). Within days, 250 people had signed. We published the open letter online and started posting it on social media, tagging Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies. After sending out a tip about the letter to some press contacts, WYPR aired this story about the letter.

In the meantime, a dozen JHU students have had their visas revoked, along with students at academic institutions across the state. With ICE now acquiring our confidential IRS data and screening social media, more disappearances are likely on the way. 

Let’s work together to make sure our institutions stand up for us and for our communities in the face of this lawlessness. 

Actions you can take right now to help:

  • Post the open letter on your social media channels and tag Mike Bloomberg (@mikebloomberg), Bloomberg Philanthropies (@bloombergdotorg) Johns Hopkins University (@johnshopkinsu), Governor Wes Moore (@govwesmoore), and news reporters (e.g. @johnjohnw4 from the Baltimore Banner)
  • Donate to emergency legal defense for JHU students
  • Pressure electeds such as Johnny O, AG Anthony Brown and others to hold a press conference at ICE headquarters drawing attention to the ongoing abductions of Marylanders

-Sonia Shah, IBC member and Allies for Democracy co-organizer