On January 5, 2020, the Business Meeting of the American Historical Association passed a resolution condemning affiliations between ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and higher education. The resolution was proposed by the Immigrants’ Rights Working Group, a part of Historians for Peace and Democracy. 

The voting took place at the annual Business Meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) in New York City. Seventy AHA members voted in favor of the resolution while sixty opposed it. 

The resolution urges university faculty, staff and administrators to sever existing ties and forgo future contracts with ICE and USCBP and supports sanctuary movements on campuses that seek to protect immigrant students and workers. It then went to the AHA Council, which is charged with determining whether to approve or reject it.

Five people spoke in favor of the resolution and five spoke against it. 

Alex Aviña introduced the resolution and explained why he supported it. “As a son of migrants who were undocumented for two decades and as a professor who teaches undocumented students in the borderlands, I urge the AHA to take a stand against state terrorism and encourage AHA members to push their universities to cut ties with ICE and the Border Patrol; and to help turn our universities into sanctuaries.”