Students rallied against the possible deportation of Tope Awe
                                           at Memorial Union this afternoon.

Sincerest apologies for the headline.  It typed itself.  (Yes I know the pronunciation.)

Let's get this out of the way.  *Insert obligatory joke about the Department of Homeland Security wasting time arresting upstanding citizens here.*  

Tope Awe, a third-year graduate student in the UW School of Pharmacy, was arrested along with her brother on Thursday after Awe and her family were summoned to the U.S. Homeland Security office in Milwaukee.  Awe and her family are facing possible deportation to Nigeria.  The family has been in the U.S. since 1989 on a visa which allows them to stay in the country for as long as  her father's medical treatment (for severe kidney disease) lasts, according to The Badger Herald.   Tope Awe was 3-years-old when she arrived in the U.S. 

Friends describe Awe as "an avid contributor to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "  She is founder and co-chair of the African Student Association, co-president of the Multicultural Affairs Program in Pharmacy and a Multicultural Resident Consultant at Chadbourne Residential College.   

A hearing was originally scheduled for today (Monday), but has been moved to a to-be-determined time.  Students and friends have launched efforts to help Awe finish her last year at UW-Madison, organizing this Facebook group--with 1,500+ members Monday evening--to voice support, as well as this online petition to collect statements of support to be sent to the hearing.

According to The Daily Cardinal, Caton Roberts, a UW-Madison psychology professor who worked closely with Awe while she worked as a multicultural residential consultant and liaison at Chadbourne Residential College, visited Awe over the weekend.

“She was appreciative of the many efforts being made on her behalf by various persons and groups at the university,” Roberts said.