Below is the email I just sent to President Alger, the Board of Visitors, and the JMU Foundation. Please continue to share this petition!
To President Alger, the members of the JMU Foundation and the Board of Visitors:
I write to you today with the backing of a growing chorus of nearly 500 supporters to formally ask that Warren K. Coleman be removed from his post as CEO/President of the JMU Foundation immediately due to his role as co-founder and former CFO of the Immigration Centers of America (ICA) and his continued role as CEO of ICA Transportation LLC, a subcontractor for ICA-Farmville.
Immigrant prisons like the one founded by Mr. Coleman are hotbeds of human rights violations, corruption, and disease. In fact, the facility co-founded by Mr. Coleman has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections out of any detention center in the country. Worst of all, despite receiving a generous salary Mr. Coleman still feels it essential to work closely with ICA and ICE to facilitate the horrors that happen in his immigrant prison. Mr. Coleman is a prison profiteer plain and simple.
As part of the petition, we are calling for a complete boycott of all private donations to JMU until Mr. Coleman is no longer associated with the Foundation or the University.
On a personal note, I feel disappointed by JMU’s decision to elevate Mr. Coleman to such a significant position. I feel betrayed by JMU, which seemed to accept and celebrate my status as a DACA recipient and immigrants’ rights activist while I was a student at the University. I can’t help but assume that our seemingly shared goal to create an inclusive environment for non-citizen members of the community was hindered by Mr. Coleman’s proximity to JMU leadership. I shudder to imagine what would’ve happened if I had been picked up by ICE while in Harrisonburg. Would I have ended up in Mr. Coleman’s concentration camp? Would the University have supported me?
I hope to regain my trust in my alma mater. This cannot happen while Warren Coleman retains his post.
Thank you for your time, work, and compassion.
Diego