Zachary Segal, president of the Boston University (BU) College Republicans, says he has faced harassment and intimidation after a Boston Globe report linked him to a November immigration enforcement operation near campus. Segal says the article triggered hundreds of threats and incidents of harassment—both online and in person.

The Globe’s reporting centered on a social media post Segal made after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid at a Boston-area car wash on November 4. In the post, Segal wrote that he had been “calling ICE for months on end” and that the agency had “finally responded to my request.”

I’ve been calling ICE for months on end. This week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals. As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be here. Pump up the numbers! https://t.co/jJtm9KzvU6

— Zac Segal (@endthehiding) November 7, 2025

According to the Globe, ICE declined to confirm whether Segal’s actions were connected to the raid. Segal, however, tells Minding the Campus that his involvement with the car wash began in May, when he contacted authorities about possible “worker exploitation” after visiting the business and observing what he believed was suspicious activity.

“I went to get my car washed. It’s a machine wash. I come out of the car wash, and about 15 individual workers are drying my car,” Segal said. “I did the math. Massachusetts’ minimum wage is $15 per hour. If they’re drying 25 vehicles an hour and there are 15 workers, that’s a $9 cost per car just to dry it with towels.”

“So I thought it was suspicious, given that they likely weren’t being paid anywhere near minimum wage,” he added. “I actually reported the tip as worker exploitation, but knew it was very likely they were illegal, given the high number of illegals living and working in Boston.”

After the Globe article was published, Segal said the reaction was immediate.

“Everyone who read the article flooded my social media with hate,” Segal said. “I was heavily doxxed. People sent threats and shared my home address.” He said one message from an unknown number warned him that his parents’ names were publicly listed on his BU track profile and suggested he would be easy to find. “I’ll be waiting outside,” the message reads in part.

Threatening messages sent to Zachary Segal from an unknown number: Zachary Segal, December 15

Segal also said he received a threatening message on Instagram telling him he should “get Kirked”—a reference to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He said the message was one of several that included explicit threats of violence.

An Instagram user messaged Zachary Segal, stating that he should get “Kirked”: Zachary Segal, December 15

Segal also said the harassment soon moved offline. 

On campus, he has been labeled a “Nazi,” “fascist,” and “racist,” and some students have compared him to far-right provocateurs. According to Time, the BU College Democrats publicly condemned Segal’s actions and announced that they would suspend collaboration with the university’s College Republicans “for the foreseeable future.”

Segal attributes the reaction not only to the specific controversy but to what he describes as a broader climate of ideological intolerance on campus.

“There is no room for other perspectives,” he said. “It’s all liberal or nothing. Being a conservative on a college campus is dangerous. People say they support free speech, but clearly they don’t.”

His experience aligns with broader trends documented in national surveys. 

A PsychFORM study released earlier this year found that 72 percent of conservative students self-censor their political views out of fear of social or academic consequences. Similarly, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has reported that roughly one-third of college faculty also self-censor their views to avoid retaliation.

Despite the backlash, Segal urged conservative students not to withdraw from campus life.

“Nothing changes if we stay silent,” he said. “Universities won’t fix this unless people are willing to speak up. If we care about the First Amendment, we have to act like it.”

Editor’s Note: Public reporting on the raid has been vague about a basic question: whether the workers detained by ICE were unlawfully present. ICE said the operation targeted undocumented individuals and confirmed that at least one detainee had illegally reentered the country after a prior deportation. Lawyers for the workers dispute that characterization, arguing that several had legal status and work authorization, and that some were later released on bond. 

Image of Boston University College of Communications by mikebtrinh on Flickr