U.S. Customs and Border Protection will host a two-day recruitment event in Tampa Bay this week, spurring planned protests Tuesday in St. Petersburg and Tampa.
The agency arrives in the region as the killing of Renee Good during a confrontation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis continues to draw national outrage.
Locally, protestors demonstrated outside Tampa City Hall on Thursday and in front of St. Petersburg police headquarters and in Largo over the weekend. They objected to violent immigration enforcement tactics, as well as local cooperation with ICE through a program that trains state and local law enforcement officers to serve as immigration officers.
“As the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, CBP is recruiting exceptional talent to fill mission-critical roles in law enforcement and mission operations support,” the event’s registration website reads.
Among the open positions listed are border patrol agent, criminal investigator and Customs and Border Protection officer. The event, according to the website, is informational only. No interviews will be held, nor will job offers be made.
While Customs and Border Protection and ICE are different agencies, they are becoming more intertwined as the former plays a greater role in immigration arrests.
The event’s website does not list ICE jobs as a part of the event but notes that open positions are “not limited to” the listed offerings.
The event’s location is only shared with confirmed registrants, agencyspokesperson Tammy Melvin told the Tampa Bay Times. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Organizers who oppose the event coming to Tampa Bay have widely circulated the Carillon Park Hilton in St. Petersburg as the believed location. Protests are planned there both Tuesday and Wednesday.
The hotel’s general manager did not answer or return a phone call seeking comment. On Monday afternoon, a vehicle from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service agency was parked in the hotel’s lot.
Harrison Lundy, a policy director for Voices of Florida, one of the local organizations planning the protests, said their goal is to demonstrate for the entirety of the event.
“Our main goal is to bring visibility, but not give the opposition what they want, which is to portray us as violent,” Lundy told the Times.
Lundy, speaking of the unconfirmed location, said it was “shameful” of Hilton to host the event, and that Voices of Florida will likely support or organize a boycott against the company.
Last week, a Hampton Inn in a Minneapolis suburb was removed as a booking option on Hilton’s website after the hotel was accused of denying service to immigration agents. A conservative influencer posing as a Department of Homeland Security employee posted a video on X showing him being turned away when he tried to book rooms.
“We are taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems,” the company said in a statement posted on X. “Hilton is — and has always been — a welcoming place for all.
“We are also engaging with all of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again.”
The University of South Florida’schapter of Students for a Democratic Society will host a protest Tuesday just off the Tampa campus near the intersection of Fletcher Avenue and Palm Drive after the recruitment event was posted on its career and professional development page, causing some to think the event was being held on campus.
Melvin, who declined to share the event location with the Times, confirmed only one Customs and Border Protection recruitment event will take place in the region this week.
“Like many other activities, this event was posted on Handshake, USF’s online career management platform used to connect students and employers for job and internship opportunities,” USF spokesperson Althea Johnson wrote in a statement to the Times. “The platform allows external employers to post information about their events, as they may be of interest to the USF community.
“Sharing information about these events does not constitute university sponsorship or endorsement of the event,” Johnson wrote.
Still, the student organization is critical, posting on Instagram that it will protest Tuesday regardless.
“USF should not be reposting recruitment events from agencies that harass our immigrant communities,” the post read.
Lucy Marques is a reporter covering higher education as a member of the Tampa Bay Times Education Hub. You can contribute to the hub through our journalism fund by clicking here.