{"id":229939,"date":"2026-04-13T16:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:23:06","slug":"fiu-professors-say-ice-agreement-makes-students-feel-less-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229939\/","title":{"rendered":"FIU Professors Say ICE Agreement Makes Students Feel Less\u00a0Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since March 2025,\u00a0at least 15 Florida public universities<\/a>\u00a0and colleges,\u00a0including the<\/a>\u00a0University of Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville<\/a>, have signed\u00a0memorandums of agreement<\/a>\u00a0for their campus police departments<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0collaborate with U.S.<\/a>\u00a0Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n

These partnerships\u00a0authorize ICE agents<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0expand the role of campus police officers<\/a>\u00a0so they can receive training and \u201cperform certain functions of an immigration officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreements give campus police officers\u00a0the federal authority<\/a>\u00a0to question students who are\u00a0believed to be immigrants<\/a>\u00a0about their legal right to be in the country. Campus police officers can arrest students if the officers have \u201creason to believe the alien to be arrested is in the United States in violation of law.\u201d Campus police can also check federal immigration databases to see students\u2019 immigration status.<\/p>\n

The list of universities in the state that have signed on to these agreements includes leading research universities such as\u00a0Florida Atlantic University<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Florida International University in Miami<\/a>, or FIU, where we work as professors of education. We are unaware of any school in the Florida state university system that has publicly said they will not sign an agreement.<\/p>\n

In the past few decades, the U.S. government has classified universities as \u201csensitive\u201d spaces<\/a>\u00a0that are protected from aggressive immigration enforcement. This means that schools, like churches and hospitals, have, until recently, been generally considered off-limits for immigration enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, President Donald Trump revoked these long-standing\u00a0Department of Homeland Security protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Shift on Campus<\/p>\n

As scholars, we study relationships between\u00a0schools and democracy<\/a>, from how\u00a0students learn languages<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0how students and educators can become leaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As professors, we teach many students who are immigrants or are from foreign countries who come to the U.S. for their studies, as well as many who are children of immigrants.<\/p>\n

As a result of these new initiatives, we are seeing and personally experiencing an intensifying climate of uncertainty and anxiety on our campus. These policies are worsening many of our students\u2019 sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

Understanding the Changes<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s approach to immigration enforcement is supported by the\u00a0federal 287(g)<\/a>\u00a0program, a 1996 amendment to the\u00a0Immigration and Nationality Act<\/a>\u00a0of 1952. This amendment to the wide-ranging immigration law lets ICE\u00a0delegate certain federal enforcement activities<\/a>\u00a0to local state police.<\/p>\n

In February 2025, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed state universities to enter into 287(g) partnerships with ICE and to \u201cdeputize\u201d university police<\/a>\u00a0officers to enforce federal immigration laws on school campuses.<\/p>\n

ICE does not have blanket access to student records,\u00a0which remain protected<\/a>\u00a0under federal privacy law. But 287(g) agreements create new pathways for information to flow through campus police encounters, effectively lowering the barrier between university data and federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

There are no official reports of FIU or other Florida university campus police officers arresting students because of their immigration status. A few college students, though, have been detained off-campus by local police agencies and\u00a0then turned over to ICE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FIU\u2019s communications team wrote in a statement to The Conversation: \u201cLast year, FIU Police signed a 287(g) memorandum of agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as have other state university, local and state law enforcement agencies in Florida. The 287(g) memorandum of agreement for Florida International University is\u00a0readily available from ICE.gov<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince signing the agreement, there have been no immigration-related enforcement actions on our campuses,\u201d FIU\u2019s statement continued.<\/p>\n

Florida Atlantic University did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In January 2026, an immigration activist recorded FIU\u2019s chief of police\u00a0saying at a FIU meeting<\/a>\u00a0that if ICE requests campus police\u2019s help, they would comply.<\/p>\n

As FIU faculty members, we have not received any explicit guidance on what to do if an ICE agent comes to campus, or if a campus police officer tries to arrest someone for immigration reasons in our classrooms.<\/p>\n

FIU President Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez said in 2025<\/a>\u00a0that there was \u201cmuch confusion, much angst, and much misinformation\u201d about the agreement.<\/p>\n

Other universities have emphasized the need to comply\u00a0with state directives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some Florida university officials have said that campus\u00a0police will not target students<\/a>\u00a0or conduct raids as part of their\u00a0routine cooperation<\/a>\u00a0with federal authorities.<\/p>\n

Heightened Stress and Anxiety<\/p>\n

As educators, our work has shifted over this past academic year from providing instruction to focusing more on mentoring our students as whole people. Our students are questioning how much their university supports them.<\/p>\n

Daily, we observe how Trump\u2019s immigration policies, including\u00a0travel bans the U.S. has placed<\/a>\u00a0on certain countries, heighten stress for all of our students, regardless of their immigration status. Our international and immigrant students have told us they are fearful of the government\u2019s increased surveillance.<\/p>\n

One graduate student shared that he was hesitant to leave his dorm room and participate in any campus activities for fear of possible arrest because of his immigration status.<\/p>\n

Another student said he would not leave the U.S. to visit his mother, who was sick with cancer, for fear he would not be let back into the country. His mother has since passed without his presence.<\/p>\n

Many students, including one international doctoral student and father to young children, are unable to return to their homeland and visit their relatives or conduct research due to\u00a0current travel bans<\/a>\u00a0placed upon\u00a075 countries<\/a>\u00a0in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

These new policies have also prompted student and faculty protests\u00a0at our university and other public universities<\/a>\u00a0across Florida.<\/p>\n

Some Florida Atlantic University students in Boca Raton\u00a0staged a walkout<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 25, 2026, to protest the school\u2019s agreement with ICE.<\/p>\n

Florida State University students called on administrators in February 2026 to set up a \u201csanctuary campus<\/a>,\u201d which would limit FSU partnerships with ICE.<\/p>\n

We are trying to create more opportunities for open dialogue and for sharing students\u2019 emotions and experiences related to these policies. We are also helping students find resources, including legal aid, that could help them or their peers if they have a negative encounter with ICE or campus police.<\/p>\n

Refuge or Risk<\/p>\n

Universities, especially in conservative\u00a0states such as Florida<\/a>, may continue to market themselves as\u00a0places of inclusion<\/a>, mobility, and global belonging. This is\u00a0true even as schools<\/a>\u00a0cut diversity, equity, and inclusion<\/a>\u00a0programs and as some students experience heightened surveillance, visa cancellations, detention, or deportation.<\/p>\n

One of our FIU graduate students recently explained how these policies are affecting their day-to-day life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to finish my studies as soon as possible and go back to my country. I feel unwelcome and unsafe on campus. I don\u2019t want to join campus activities anymore because students can be targeted there,\u201d the student said. \u201cI no longer trust campus police officers and won\u2019t ask them for help, even if I need it. I am afraid I will be profiled even though I am here legally.\u201d<\/p>\n

When campus police are folded into federal immigration work, we believe that universities cannot claim they offer more refuge than risk.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0New Times\u00a0occasionally shares articles from The Conversation, a nonprofit collaborative whose team of journalists works with academic experts to produce informative opinion and analysis for a general audience. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer(s). Unless otherwise noted, the content above was produced solely by The Conversation. This article is republished from\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0under a Creative Commons license.\u00a0Read the\u00a0original article<\/a>.
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