UPDATE: As of 9:48 AM on January 23, the Office of Public Interest and Community Service at GULC has notified students enrolled in PSRP Table Talks that the “U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA)” has withdrawn from participation and will no longer be hosting these sessions. ICE’s OPLA did not schedule individual interviews with candidates, so their withdrawal from Table Talks constitutes a complete withdrawal of OPLA, ICE’s largest legal arm, from PSRP. Interested students were invited to reach out directly to the OPLA hiring team to connect with employers. ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC) is still participating in PSRP’s interviews.
After a student petition garnered more than 1,200 signatures, the George Washington University Law School Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew confirmed to students that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not be removed as recruiting employers from the Public Service Recruitment Program (PSRP) hosted on January 23. PSRP is a joint employer recruitment program hosted collaboratively by GW Law and Georgetown University Law Center (GULC).
Backlash against ICE escalated most recently with the January 7 homicide of Renee Good, who died during an exchange with an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A new ICE memo leaked informing agents that they are entitled to enter homes without a judicial warrant. These incidents are some of many that law students linked to a pattern of behavior that allegedly directly violates the rule of law, according to the petition drafted jointly by students at GW Law and GULC.
The petition reads, in pertinent part:
“Working for DHS or ICE is antithetical to what it means to be a lawyer serving the public interest. Inviting ICE to our campuses (virtually or in person) is contrary to GW Law’s mission of embracing diversity, an international student body, and an inclusive community. [. . .] There is no inclusion or justice in supporting ICE, an organization which attacks our immigrant communities and threatens their lives and livelihoods.
“Furthermore, ICE has a history of unlawful suspicionless stops, warrantless arrests, and racial profiling, demonstrated by the ACLU’s lawsuit filed against DHS and ICE on January 15, 2026.”
The petition was initiated by law students at GULC, who contacted GW Law students on January 16 to notify them of ICE being a recruiting employer and of the petition being actively dispersed to GULC students. The petition was written from the perspective of students from both universities, with GW Law students later circulating the materials to student organizations and groups to sign. The petition was formally sent to Dean Matthew and Interim Dean Joshua C. Teitelbaum (GULC) on January 18 after reaching 1,000 signatures.
GW Law organizers who contacted Dean Matthew were informed that she was in Memphis, Tennessee, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and she was planning to discuss the issue upon her return. Dean Teitelbaum informed GULC students that he would be meeting in-person with them to address the petition, and Dean Matthew followed shortly thereafter to organize a meeting with GW Law students.
Students who signed this petition on behalf of an organization were invited as student organization leaders to meet privately with Dean Matthew on January 21 to voice their organizations’ concerns about ICE’s and DHS’s involvement with PSRP. This meeting was held off-the-record and will not be replicated in publication, although Dean Matthew contextualized the content of the meeting in an email sent to the law school student body on January 22—the day before PSRP. “Students generously heard my concerns with the petition and also exercised their right to think and speak critically,” Dean Matthew summarizes. “In short, we had what was for me an incredibly open and meaningful conversation.”
Dean Matthew determined that, “[a]fter careful consideration, [. . .] we will not disinvite ICE and DHS from this Friday’s PSRP program.” One solution posed for future similar circumstances, should we return to in-person interviews, would be to separate public interest employer interviews from government employers. She cites a balancing of concerns in the decision to maintain ICE as a recruiting employer, including “freedom of expression,” “safety,” “University policy,” and “accreditation.”
“In my view, providing PSRP access to an employer does not signal endorsement or support of that employer’s work or values,” she continues. “My decision does support and endorse GW Law students’ right to express opposition to an employer consistent with the university’s freedom of expression policy.” Dean Matthew closed her statement, noting that she “could not be more grateful for our students who have been constructive, principled, passionate, and impactful in their engagement to advance their commitment to justice, democracy, and the rule of law. I believe the future is safe in your hands.”
Other commentary on the petition against ICE recruiting through PSRP can be found at The Georgetown Voice and The Hoya. A GULC spokesperson confirmed to the Voice that “[Georgetown University] will not remove [ICE] and [DHS] as employers at [PSRP].” In parallel fashion to Dean Matthew’s statement, a GULC spokesperson wrote that “[t]he participation of any organization in PSRP is not an endorsement by Georgetown Law or George Washington Law of that organization.”
As Public Interest and Public Service (PIPS) Program Manager Anapaula Pérez-Gaitan worded it, “Public interest and public service law stands for the betterment of society and for work towards the public good and general welfare. To allow a violent terror group such as ICE to be part of a program meant to promote public interest and public service jobs is incredibly disheartening and, quite frankly, inappropriate.”
Pérez-Gaitan elaborated on the mission she is striving for here at GW Law, commenting for Nota Bene, “My personal goal with the public interest program is always to build community and make students feel welcome, appreciated, and supported. ICE’s mission is antithetical to these goals and stands in direct opposition to the principles of community. I am very disappointed that the law school is welcoming this organization—which does not welcome so many members of our community simply for their nationality or color of their skin—into our program.”
As of the time of this writing, sources have informed Nota Bene that almost twenty organizations have dropped out of PSRP as recruiting employers, citing ICE’s involvement in the program. All of these organizations have agreed to honor their interviews with students, hosting these interviews on an independent platform or otherwise modifying their interview process.
The GW Law and Democracy Project will be hosting a panel with Indivisible, the groups that organize the No Kings protests nationally, on January 23 at 12:00PM. Interested students can find more information about this event and should register through the GW Events Calendar.
If any individuals believe they have been discriminated against or harassed based on protected characteristics as defined by the University’s Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, Anti-Harassment, and Non-Retaliation Policy, you are encouraged to report those incidents to the Office of Access and Opportunity.
The content of this article is a synopsis of information made available to the GW Law student body and independent sources. All content is independently published by the Nota Bene team and should not be interpreted as a reflection of the values or opinions of the University or its faculty, staff, administration, organizations, or other students.
This article is not intended to reflect the opinions of the Nota Bene, its authors, or its Editorial Board. If there are topics you would like to see covered, we encourage you to reach out to our team at notabene@law.gwu.edu.
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