UC Berkeley course promotes ‘Abolish ICE’ movement, calls agency a ‘racist deportation force’
Course readings, such as “It’s Time to Abolish ICE” and “Trump Wants to Take Away Your Citizenship,” refer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “racist deportation force.”
Campus Reform obtained the Spring 2024 and Spring 2025 syllabi. The course is slated to be offered again in Spring 2026.
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) offers an undergraduate course that teaches American immigration policy is based on “racial superiority” and promotes the “Abolish ICE movement.”
Course readings, such as “It’s Time to Abolish ICE” and “Trump Wants to Take Away Your Citizenship,” refer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “racist deportation force.”
Campus Reform obtained the Spring 2024 and Spring 2025 syllabi for the course Legal Studies 132AC: Immigration and Citizenship. The course is slated to be offered again in Spring 2026.
The syllabi contain dozens of required readings that repeatedly claim ICE, federal immigration law, and border enforcement are rooted in “white supremacy.”
There are no required materials that defend the role of immigration law in protecting national security or discuss the constitutional basis for federal enforcement powers.
The assigned article “It’s Time to Abolish ICE” calls the immigration agency a “racist deportation force” and a “white-supremacist surveillance state.”
It features comment from University of Louisville Law Professor Dan Canon, who calls ICE “an agency devoted almost solely to cruelly and wantonly breaking up families,” and says it treats “human beings like they’re animals.”
“They scoop up people in their apartments or their workplaces and take them miles away from their spouses and children,” Canon said.
The article calls ICE a “threat to democracy” and features comment from Angel Padilla, policy director of the leftist activist group the Indivisible Project, who alleges that “ICE is terrorizing American communities right now…They’re going into schools, entering hospitals, conducting massive raids, and separating children from parents every day.”
[RELATED: Over 35 colleges enforce ‘Sanctuary Campus’ policies, refuse to cooperate with ICE]
Another course reading, “Trump Wants to Take Away Your Citizenship,” refers to President Trump as “the most xenophobic president the country had elected in at least a century.”
The class is taught by Professors Lisa Knox and Christina H. Lee, both deportation defense attorneys who have strong ties to activist groups that advocate for detained immigrants.
In a writing assignment, students must submit a reaction paper to one of the readings and answer: “Did the material change your perspective or thinking in any way? If so, how?” The assignment, combined with the one-sided nature of the course materials, suggests the class is structured to encourage students to adopt the perspectives advanced in the readings.
As a taxpayer-funded institution, UC Berkeley receives state appropriations and federal funding through student aid and research grants.
Campus Reform has contacted UC Berkeley for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
