December 5, 2025

2 entries on this date.

Dec 5

University of Arkansas dean removed tenured Middle East studies director over Israel posts, later fired her

On December 5, 2025, University of Arkansas Fulbright College Dean Brian Raines removed tenured political science professor Shirin Saeidi as director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies and recommended her termination, citing her social media posts and reposts about Israel, Gaza, and Iran. A UA faculty committee unanimously recommended against her dismissal in February 2026, but UA System President Jay Silveria overrode that finding in March, citing risk of funding loss under an Arkansas antisemitism-reporting law, and the UA System Board of Trustees voted to uphold her termination and revoke her tenure in May 2026.

Dec 5

ICE detained visa holder in unheated, overcrowded Central Islip courthouse cell for days without beds or showers

ICE detained Erron Anthony Clarke, a Jamaican national on an H-2B visa with a pending green-card application, beginning December 5, 2025, packing him with up to eight other men into an overcrowded holding room at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, without bunks, bedding, showers, or toothbrushes. U.S. District Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointee, ordered Clarke's release on December 11 and, in a December 18 ruling, found the detention violated due process, called the conditions "substandard, abhorrent and likely unlawful," and said DHS had given the court "evasive and demonstrably false" information about the practice.