Petition to Move the 2026 ICM Out of the United States

   We, the undersigned mathematicians, call on the IMU to reconsider its decision to hold the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians in the United States this coming July. We rely heavily on the important precedent set by the IMU in 2022 when it decided not to hold the ICM in Russia in the context of its war of aggression in Ukraine and the potential dangers associated with holding such a conference in Russia in regards to freedom of political expression and the safety of LGBTQ participants. In the wake of this past decision, there is simply no sound argument one could make that claims international participants are more safe at this iteration of the ICM than they would have been in Russia in 2022. 

   The current American government has demonstrated in no uncertain terms its unbridled hatred of immigrants. This stance has increased the risks of traveling to the US, as it is now a country on the verge of martial law and there is a serious concern that academics (or anyone) traveling to the US may be denied entry. Indeed, the French mathematical society has already chosen not to attend the conference for these very reasons. The US supreme court recently ruled that government agents can stop and question civilians about their immigration status based solely on racial appearance or what language they speak. There are numerous cases all around the country of American citizens being caught up in this dragnet, and released only after experiencing terrible brutality and extended detainment. The highly publicized murders of US citizens by border patrol and ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis and Los Angeles have not stopped or even slowed the brutality. Systemic mistreatment of detainees by federal enforcement officers have continued unabashedly. We point to the recent case of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a blind man who froze to death after being picked up by ICE officers and then subsequently abandoned miles from his home. And in Philadelphia, the proposed host city, Parady La died alone and without access to his family while in ICE custody in what is suspected to be (assuming one gives the government the benefit of the doubt that no intentional harm was caused to La) a case of severe medical neglect.  

This is the context in which the IMU is inviting mathematicians from all over the world, people who may not look to an ICE agent as though they “belong”, and therefore, people who may be subject to indiscriminate harassment and physical violence. And even if mathematicians from the 75 countries for which the current US administration has suspended visa processing are able to obtain conference visas, how can we expect such mathematicians to safely visit Philadelphia and engage fruitfully in the conference without fear of harm and unlawful detention? The IMU is irresponsible in its promotion of such risky behavior amongst the world's mathematicians, especially when over 40 countries have issued travel warnings to their citizens when traveling to and from the US. 

So if the goal of the ICM is to encourage a sense of international unity amongst mathematicians, the IMU would completely fail on its own terms were it to go through with its plans to host the conference in the United States. The impossibility of achieving this sense of unity comes not only from the actions the Trump administration takes within US borders, but also from its flagrant disregard of basic humanity all around the world. Thus, just as many mathematicians objected to Russia’s hosting of ICM on the basis of its invasion of Ukraine, we argue that the current American government disqualifies the US from hosting the ICM in 2026. Indeed, America’s role in destabilizing the world through widespread attacks include:

• the illegal kidnapping of the leader of Venezuela under bogus “war on drugs” claims, 

• continued extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, 

• aiding and abetting the ongoing genocide in Palestine, including pushing for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to make room for luxury real estate, 

• the creation of a humanitarian crisis through a coercive and punitive blockade in Cuba, 

• a brazen and thoughtless war on Iran (which included the bombing of a school that lead to the deaths of over 150 children and 20 teachers), and

• its absurd attempt to colonize Greenland completely against the desires of its current inhabitants

These actions can be under no circumstances deemed civilized, justified, or representative of the spirit of unity to which the ICM aspires. Indeed, when Trump’s secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, was interviewed about the United State’s most recent attempt to disguise the destruction of another Middle Eastern country as “liberation”, he proclaimed proudly that “the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians who think they’re gonna live.” 

We emphasize that the violence perpetrated internationally by the US government directly connects to the primary concern of safety and well-being of conference participants. Given that one of the highest ranking governmental officials of the host country expressed an intention to indiscriminately murder Iranians, one might forgive an Iranian mathematician (regardless of their personal political orientation towards the war and the stated goals of its initiators) for not feeling a sense of unity at a US-based ICM.