A conservative group from the University of Texas at Austin said on Monday that they will play a game called "Catch an Illegal Immigrant," amid threats of expulsion from the school's administration.
Members from The Young Conservatives of Texas said they'd scheduled the game for Wednesday, when participants would roam the school's grounds wearing signs reading "illegal immigrant," the Associated Press reported. Students who successfully grab and return them to the club's recruitment table will receive $25 gift certificates.
"The purpose of this event is to spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration, and how it affects our everyday lives," Lorenzo Garcia, the organization's spokesperson, wrote in a statement posted online.
When Texas Democrats caught wind of the posting, they criticized the group's plans to play the game, and noted that Garcia recently worked as a paid employee of Republican Greg Abbott's campaign for Governor. Abbott recently caught heat from Democrats in the southern state who urged him to give a stance on a piece of legislation that lets children who were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents to receive financial aid.
"While Abbott has said he doesn't support the DREAM Act as it is, he refuses to say what he would change and if he supports it at all," Gilberto Hinojosa, the state's democratic chairperson, told the Associated Press. "He must come out and immediately denounce Wednesday's event. This style of hatred and fear is not the type of leadership Texas deserves."
Avdiel Huerta, who works as Abbott's press secretary, told AP that the "campaign has no affiliation with this repugnant effort."
University of Texas, Austin vice president for diversity Gregory Vincent chided the students who will participate in the game, despite the fact that they have the right to play it.
"The YCT is contributing to an environment of exclusion and disrespect among our students, faculty and staff by sending the message that certain students do not belong on our campus," Vincent wrote in a release. "If the members of YCT carry out their plan... they are willfully ignoring the honor code and contributing to the degradation of our campus culture."
The university has threatened to put students found playing the game on trial for expulsion.
