Imagine being an international student and reading a note from “Special Investigations Unit” on the door of your dorm when you get home from a night out which reads: “We regret to inform you that a resident of this dorm has been detained indefinitely due to suspicious actions, suspected violent inclinations, or suspicion of being a deportable alien (i.e. questionable residency status)." That might cause you some alarm, right?

Well, that's exactly what happened when some Harvard student activists posted fake notices all over campus. Why would people want to scare students at a university which attracts students from all over the world? Students whose first language isn't English? Kat Timpf at National Review explains that the students would literally have to flip the flier over to read the disclaimer:

The back — and only the back — of the flyer clarified that it was, in fact, “not a real notice,” and that the reason for the “unsettling nature” of it was to encourage “Harvard community members to reflect on the reality of people who face these kinds of unwarranted disruptions of life in unexplained suspicious circumstances before a state power that can hold ‘suspects’ indefinitely.” It also included information about an upcoming panel on incarceration. 



The Palestine Solidarity Committee orchestrated the fake immigration notices. The group's co-president Fatima M. Bishtawi explained they were apparently trying to raise awareness that people who see immigration notices “do not always get to walk away from a notice knowing that it is fake.” Yeah, because fake deportation notices aren't a thing. Those only happen at Harvard, am I right? What's next, is Bishtawi going to scream "fire" in a crowded theater to raise awareness against arson?

The notices were also signed by Harvard Concilio Latino, the Harvard Islamic Society, and the Harvard Black Students Association. Wow, with social justice warriors like that, who needs bigots?

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