Students at Miami’s Florida International University (FIU) are justifiably alarmed. They fear the links between their community policing and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Trump administration reinvigorated the ICE partnership program — the infamous 287(g) program — in 2022. In the wake of this, this issue has been prioritized. The partnership allows local police departments to receive training for “limited” involvement in immigration operations, which has raised significant alarm among the university’s diverse student body.
Bayan Abedulazis chairs the FIU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. In this role they have been most outspoken about the impact of these public-private partnerships. Our chapter provides a student-centric overview of how these agreements erode the safety and trust that students should receive from their colleges and universities. The university is home to almost 3,800 international students from more than 142 countries, rendering these partnerships a vital issue to many.
Just last month, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ordered his state law enforcement agencies to join the ICE partnership program. A recent report by the Miami Herald exposed the opposite and much more alarming trend. Today, almost every college in Florida with its own campus law enforcement agency—including FIU—has signed up for this controversial program. Campus police wield significant law enforcement power under these MOUs. They are able to stop, interrogate, and arrest students based on their perceived immigration status.
Critics say that this partnership would further increase the Trump administration’s enforcement actions against international students. Madeline Baró, senior director of media relations at the FIU, verified that officials did revoke the visas of 18 students. What she released lacked the most basic details about the university’s agreement with ICE.
ICE’s partnership program has long been condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as unconstitutional. They implicate deep civil rights concerns that echo through our communities and perpetuate racial profiling and discrimination. This spirit strikes a chord among activist ecosystems on Florida’s university campuses. Stephen Sykes, a Stop Cop City activist from the University of Florida (UF), touched on people’s declining faith in the institution of campus police.
“Even across activist communities at UF that generally don’t have the best relationships with police, they were seen as kind of the good people. They protected activists during our Palestine encampment, they were just there hanging out. It felt more like they were protecting us than trying to box us in. Now a lot of that trust is definitely gone.” – Stephen Sykes
The impact of what happened at FIU has made things more difficult and stressful for students. At the same time, many of them have been made to feel unsafe and are scared to participate in political speech.
“Things are very uncertain, and there is a lot of fear, just because of the fact that FIU is an international university.”
She started to notice how much students are afraid to speak their minds today. They fear participating in demonstrations due to the inherent risks associated with protest.
“Students are scared to come out now, because to even speak up is to risk deportation.” – Stephen Sykes
A few weeks ago, the University of Florida proudly proclaimed its partnership with ICE. This led to an impressive wave of protests and demonstrations from students standing against these partnerships. Activists claim that university campuses have the ability to ignore these types of agreements. They want to see student safety as top priority above any political agenda.
“It is clear that schools are bowing down to a racist agenda rather than prioritizing the safety of their students. This won’t stop at FAU. We need to fight back.”
Protests and activist organizing are exploding on campuses. Thousands of students nationwide are calling upon their universities to be more transparent and accountable about their complicity in federal immigration enforcement. They argue strongly that institutions must defend the interests of their diverse student bodies, rather than support or enable practices that they view as discriminatory.
Community and civil rights groups’ concerns about these ICE partnerships reflect a larger national discussion around the damage wrought by immigration enforcement in our schools. Half of all Florida colleges are now collaborating with ICE. Students and advocates are watching closely, fearing that these partnerships will lead to increased surveillance and intimidation of marginalized communities.