The recent news that a UW-Madison student faced deportation has rightfully inspired campus community's involvement. The case of Tope Awe, a third-year pharmacy student, brought the issue of immigration close to home.
According to many personal accounts, Awe is an exemplary student whose current situation deserves continued support and attention. Because of her accomplishments and her character, many argued for Awe to remain in the United States to complete her education. This request came true on Tuesday, and the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement declared Tope Awe eligible to stay in Madison and finish her degree, assuming she wears an ankle bracelet and maintain constant contact with ICE.
This marks progress, but is still far from a solution. With the success of recent protests, UW-Madison students should not settle for the deportation of Tope Awe immediately following her graduation.
Tope Awe has a unique story compared to most students on campus. When she came here in 1989 with her family to the United States from Nigeria, she was only three years old and obviously had no voice in the matter. Awe's parents had hopes of a better life for their children, which they felt could be accomplished through education. These dreams seemed less realistic when the family's appeal for citizenship through legal proceedings was continually denied, despite the need of frequent medical treatment for Awe's father. This left the Awe family with little choice but to remain in the U.S., displacing their children and forcing them to accommodate to an American style of life.
Awe showed her personal desire to comply with immigration authorities in the incident of her arrest. Despite acting responsibly when arrested, the detention and resulting consequences have led Awe to be treated more like a criminal than a college student. Forcing Awe to wear an electronic monitoring device associates her with those responsible for . Her brother, Oluwabenga, will not be granted citizenship, even though he is married to a United States citizen and the couple has a very young child. He currently resides under the same monitored conditions as Tope.
Deportation in this situation is unnecessary when considering the Awe family is not a threat to the United States It would be pointless to punish these two individuals whose decision to come to the United States was made for them. The lives of Tope and Oluwabenga Awe have been fully established in Wisconsin, meaning deportation would strip them of every aspect life they have known, including a spouse and child. The community of supporters who have worked so hard to end Awe's detention should not be fully content with the results of their work just yet.
These factors alone show Awe is deserving of the extended support required to grant her permission to remain in the United States. Her positive reputation and contributions to UW further prove this. Awe has worked hard to better herself and impact the UW community and is an active participant on this campus, as seen through her leadership roles as the co-chair of the African Student Association and the co-president of the Multicultural Affairs program in the School of Pharmacy. Many UW students do not make the effort or spend as much time getting involved to the degree that Tope Awe has. Her positive influence on this campus shows that protesters and UW-Madison students should remain actively interested in the status of her case.
Most students remain unaware of Tope's situation, despite the protest and 1,300 petitions of the students organized by Selam Zewdie. These 1,300 students need to raise the awareness of Tope's case immediatately.
The university's action in notifying federal legislators is laudable, and without the work of state Sen. Kohl, D-WI - prompted by UW's move - Awe would not have been able to return to Madison in a timely fashion. Despite this progress, though, interpreting Awe's release from detention as complete victory would be a grave mistake for those actively involved. The support of all these groups - students, UW officials and federal lawmakers - needs to continue until Awe is treated with civility and allowed to remain in the United States after her graduation.
Chloe Cabot is a junior majoring in Spanish and political science. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
