Missouri State Rally Backs Staffer Paul Essel, Held on ICE Detainer at Greene County Jail Since Oct. 7
SPRINGFIELD, Greene County, Missouri — Several area organizations marched and rallied at Missouri State University on Oct. 28 in support of Paul Essel, a university employee detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calling on university leadership to stand up. Essel, the university's grants accounting manager, has been held at the Greene County Jail on an ICE detainer since Oct. 7.
Essel, originally from Ghana, has been grants accounting manager since 2019. He and his wife Pearl have three children, and their teenage nieces live with them. Pearl spoke at the rally in front of Carrington Hall about what the family has faced since his arrest. Groups taking part included the local NAACP and the Southern Missouri Immigration Alliance (SMIA).
SMIA founder Dominique Moore, Essel's neighbor, said that although Springfield has not seen large raids like those in Minneapolis, people are still being detained: "Twenty months is long enough for the immigration crackdown that has been happening." The university has said Essel earned two graduate degrees at Missouri State between 2008 and 2014, began working there as a student and has remained an employee in good standing; it said his hiring followed standard procedures and federal requirements, including a background check and work-eligibility verification. Essel has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Source: GSM·USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：MissouriStateUHistoricQuad.jpg（CC BY-SA 3.0，Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: MissouriStateUHistoricQuad.jpg (CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
