Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society protesting ICE on the corner of USF Palm and Fletcher.
TAMPA– Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society held a demonstration on Tuesday to protest against the University of South Florida Police Department’s collaboration with Immigration and Customs enforcement.
Recently, USF put a pause on H-1B visas that provided non-immigrant, temporary work authorization in the U.S. for faculty. Along with that, the USFPD signed a 287g agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement creates a partnership between ICE and state or local law enforcement, like USFPD. It authorizes officers to perform some immigration enforcement acts. Victoria Hinckley, a long time member of Tampa Bay SDS says this makes campus unsafe for many students.
“We want to show USF that, you know, we’re not going to just let them sign the 287g program and sign all the collaboration with ICE without students making a stand for it, cause we don’t want to see ICE on our campus,” said Hinckley. “We don’t want to see Border Patrol at our career fairs anymore. We don’t want to see USFPD be trained by ICE and we don’t want to see our international and our immigrant students be harmed this way and be attacked this way.”
USF International Students
According to USF, more than 7,000 international students attended during the 2023-2024 academic year. However, by December of 2025, USF lost over 260 international students during fall enrollment. Saba Indawala, a member of Tampa Bay SDS, said this collaboration should be stopped.
“We want USFPD to break that contract with DHS,” said Indawala. “We want USF to do something against this pause on H-1B visas. So, we demand that there’s a restoration of H-1B visas and end to 287g agreements and we demand a sanctuary campus now.”
Tampa Bay SDS plans on having more protests in the near future to continue advocating against USF’s collaboration with ICE.