It didn’t take long for the University of Texas to put a stop to the “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event planned for their campus after the event made national headlines. The “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” event, which was planned by the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin, was canceled after UT officials said it violated their honor code.
During the game, students who participated would have been given a $25 gift card for apprehending any students wearing an “illegal immigrant” name tag. This event was supposedly created to increase awareness of illegal immigration. The Young Conservatives group found themselves under fire for the event on Facebook and Twitter, but the group says their illegal immigrant hunt was needed because no one would come to debates.
“If we held a forum or a public debate no one would show up,” said Lorenzo Garcia, YCT chairman of the UT chapter. “But if we have an event like this it gets people talking about and if it gets people talking about it then we’ve succeeded. We’re not afraid to be politically incorrect. We don’t espouse to the belief that politics is immune to offending someone.”
Here is the Young Conservative group’s original tweet regarding the event:
We will be having a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" event this Wednesday at the West Mall. #tcot #getinthebackoftheline https://t.co/Ffjz2S92eH
— YCT-UT (@YCT_UT) November 18, 2013
According to KVUE, Texas received more than 500 complaints of discrimination related to the event. This is reportedly the most complaints UT’s Campus Climate Response Team has ever received.
Dr. Gregory Vincent, the University of Texas Vice President of Diversity and Community Engagement, released a statement regarding the matter:
“If the members of YCT carry out their plan for “Catch an Illegal Immigrant,” they are willfully ignoring the honor code and contributing to the degradation of our campus culture. And once again, they will have resorted to exercising one of the university’s core values to the detriment of others. Such actions are counterproductive to true dialogue on our campus, and it is unrepresentative of the ideals toward which our community strives.”
Now that the event has been canceled, some people are saying that the university is denying its students the right to free speech. Do you think the university was right to cancel the illegal immigrant game? Respond below.
Distraught to read about a group on UT's campus planning a catch an illegal immigrant game. Equally distraught no one cares abt free speech.
— Hana Le (@hanale14) November 18, 2013
at the end of the day, freedom of speech overrules ..it's not inciting violence; therefore, the catching illegal immigrant game stands
— Oluchi Ifebi (@luchimayne) November 18, 2013
[Image via Twitter]
